I'll be at your side
by EndlessFighter
Summary: Lorelai is 19 when she comes to SH... but something is different with her. what's going on?JavaJunkie, AU story. give it a try
1. Prologue

**heeey... it's me... I'm back ;)**

**like I promised you all I'm back with a new story. this is really different... it's total AU but this story is somehow really important to me.**

**Sorry that the chapter is so short but it's only the prologue... I swear that they will be longer from now on.**

**soo... i don't know what to say anymore ... just enjoy ;)**

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**I'll be at your side**

**-Prologue-**

There she was. In a little town somewhere in Connecticut. The sun was sending her warm beams down to earth. Everywhere were people doing their things and there were kids playing in the town square. This down looked like one of these picture-perfect towns.

A small smile came to her lips.

Smiling, it's been forever since she'd done that the last time.

Yes, she'd definitely stay here for a while. Away from Hartford. Away from her Parents. At the thought of her parents her smile vanished immediately.

She had run away from home but it was her parent's own fault. Why were they so cold? Why didn't they understand her? Couldn't they feel that after all these years she was still suffering from what happened? If they would've cared for her three years ago, if they would've stood by her side instead of shrugging it off. Maybe, yeah maybe, everything would've gone different then. But it wasn't like that. And now they even wanted to send her to a psychiatrist. But psychiatrists are for mad and crazy people and she wasn't mad and crazy.

She sighed and looked at her surroundings. Her eyes stopped at a sign that read "Independence Inn". Slowly she walked into the direction the arrow on the sign was pointing at. After a few minutes a small Inn came in view. It looked beautiful with its white façade, white beams and red roof tiles. All around it where flowers and it was just dreamlike.

And again a smile appeared on her face. With a good feeling she climbed the stairs to the Inn's porch and opened the front door.

The inside of the Inn looked exactly like she imagined it. She looked at the reception desk behind which a elderly woman with short, gray her was standing who was talking to a man with a French accent. The woman looked enormous friendly. She walked over to the desk and looked at the two persons expectantly.

The man turned around to her and asked,

"Hello, young lady, what can I do for you?" in his French accent. She didn't say anything and just put her ID on the desk and pointed at the computer. His facial expression changed and he looked a little angry. He examined her ID.

"Can't you just tell me like every normal person, what I can do for you?"

She shook her head and pushed the ID back to him. The man turned around to the woman with whom he had talked before. She had observed the girl the whole time.

"Mia, I can't work like that. This girl is refusing to talk to me" he said to the woman and crossed his arms in front of his chest. Mia looked at the girl for a moment longer and turned back to the Concierge.

"It's okay, Michel. Go into the kitchen and see if Sookie didn't burn down anything" With a grunt Michel walked over to the kitchen. Mia turned back around to the young woman in front of her and looked at her more closely. She had dark, almost black hair which fell in soft curls over her shoulders and her eyes blue as the ocean. She couldn't be older than 19. Mia smiled at her.

"You just put off my concierge. Congratulations. But don't worry, he's always like that" she tried to joke but only got a small smile in return.

"Do you at least want to talk to me?" She shook her head.

"Hmmm… okay… do you speak at all?" again she shook her head. Mia thought for a moment. This girl didn't talk. It was strange.

"Okay, then I'll try to guess now. Because you came to my Inn I think you want a room, am I right?" This time she got a nod in answer.

"Good, for how long?" The young girl thought for a moment and then shrugged. Mia had to smile.

"Okay, so a room for an uncertain amount of time" Mia typed something in her computer and took the ID to read type in the girl's name. She saw her birth year… 1968. That meant that she really was only 19 years old.

Mia gave the ID back to her and smiled.

"So, now you have room 3." Mia gave her the room keys. "I saw that you're only 19. Do you have a problem with it when I call you Lorelai instead of Miss Gilmore?" Lorelai shook her head and this time even smiled at Mia.

"Good Lorelai, then follow me so I can show you your room"

Lorelai grabbed her bag and followed Mia upstairs. So, this was her new home for now. But who knows, maybe she'll even stay forever.

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**sooo... that's it... what do you think?... I know... nothing really happend but I swear it'll get better... so please leave me a review and tell me your thoughts **

** Jule**


	2. Chapter 1

**Wow... I mean really wow... 16 reviews... I'm speechless... I never got so many reviews for one chapter before and especially not for the fiorst one. guys, you have no idea how much I love you right now XD hugs you all but I just can't answer all your questions because it would give the whole story away and we don't want that, do we?  
**

**and all your reviews made me update fast and so here is the new chapter... still not really long but longer than the first one ;) **

**enjoy.**

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**Chapter 1**

Three weeks had passed since Lorelai had come to this wonderful town. However she didn't see that much of it. Her favorite place was the pond behind the Inn where she mostly sat for hours deep in thought. The Inn's chef often brought her some things to eat or some coffee outside. Sometimes, when she was on her break, she even sat down next to Lorelai and they both looked out over the water.

In the beginning Mia had told Sookie to do all these things but by now she did them on her own will. She also had told her to talk a little with Lorelai but after some days Sookie was out of ideas of what to talk to her about because Lorelai never answered. Sookie however started to enjoy just sitting there with her and look at the water. Somehow she liked Lorelai.

Mia too was fascinated by this young woman who didn't talk. She often had asked herself in the last few weeks what must have happened that a person who is still at the beginning of its life just decides not to speak anymore. Because she was sure that Lorelai was able to speak but just didn't want to. She had no idea what gave her this feeling.

Today was a pretty normal Monday on which Mia was sitting in her office and was looking through her bills. But her thoughts always went over to Lorelai until there suddenly was a knock on her door. A moment later a worried looking Sookie came into her office.

"Sorry to interrupt you, Mia but I just went outside to bring Lorelai something to eat and she is sitting there crying really, really hard. I don't know what to do, Mia." You could hear in her voice how worried Sookie was.

"Did she say anything?" Mia had to shiver inwardly at the vision of Lorelai in this state. She didn't even know how to calm Sookie down so she had especially no idea how she should approach Lorelai. Sookie's sight alone was heartbreaking already.

Sookie only shook her head. It was exasperating.

"Okay, try to calm down, Sookie. I'm going to look for her. It probably won't be that bad" she tried to calm Sookie.

Mia put her bills aside and walked Sookie back into the kitchen. From there she disappeared through the back door. Sookie stood in the door and watched Mia. She watched each of Mia's steps. She was still shaken to the core herself from seeing Lorelai like this and it seemed that Mia was feeling the same way. Mia was slowly walking towards them pond. She tried to be loud so that Lorelai would hear her coming and wouldn't be scared to death when she approached her. She also wanted to give her he chance to run away if Lorelai didn't want any company but if she wanted to run away she would've done that already but instead she still sat there and so Mia figured that she wasn't disturbing her.

When she reached the pond she just sat down next to Lorelai in silence. She had to swallow hard at the sight of Lorelai: she was sitting there with her knees pulled up to her chest. Her head was resting on her knees. Her whole body was shaking. Mia had no idea what to do and so she just took her in her arms. Lorelai immediately put her arms around Mia and cried at her shoulder. Thereon Mia started to stroke through her hair.

After some time Lorelai had calmed down a little. She let go of the elder woman, looked into her eyes for a moment but turned back to the water almost immediately.

Mia had no idea what to do anymore. How was she supposed to help her if she didn't say anything? She looked at Lorelai for a second and asked.

"Don't you want to tell me what is wrong?" There was no reaction from Lorelai. But Mia didn't want to give up that fast and put a finger under Lorelais chin and turned her head so that she was looking her in the eye.

"Lorelai, I want to help you. Please tell me what is going on." Mia could see that Lorelai was about to give in. She was struggling with herself. It was some kind of struggle about trust.

"You can trust me, Lorelai. Really!" And Mia saw Lorelais barriers crumble. The next moment Lorelai had pushed a crumpled sheet of paper into her hands. A little confused Mia started to unfold the paper.

It was an account statement…

It said that when Lorelai came here she had $1.400 with her but after three weeks at the Independence Inn that had cost her $490 a week she was in $70 debt.

Mia had to swallow when she saw that. Incapable to think anything she looked at Lorelai.

"Sweetheart, you don't have any money left" she said in shock. She knew that this statement sounded really stupid at that moment but that was all she was able to say.

The young woman in her arms just nodded and her eyes started to get teary again. Mia thought for a few minutes and then made a decision.

"Okay, when I get this right you don't have any money left and you have no idea how to get money." A nod from Lorelai.

"And I also think you have no idea where to stay than here at the Inn." Another nod from Lorelai.

"That makes me guess that you also don't want to go back to your parents." And again a nod from Lorelai. This time it was more firmly. Mia observed Lorelai for a few seconds and then said in a firm voice.

"I'm going to make you an offer. You can work as a maid here at the Inn and I'll pay you for it. And I'm going to call Tom tomorrow and ask him to renovate the potting shed for you, so that you can live in it."

Lorelai looked at Mia in disbelieve. She really couldn't believe it. This woman that she only met three weeks ago was offering her a job and a place to stay. It all seemed like a dream to Lorelai.

Mia seemed to see the unsure expression on Lorelais face and confirmed again "I'm dead serious, sweetheart!"

As soon as she finished these words a really big smile started to form on Lorelais lips and her blue eyes started to sparkle. She threw her arms around Mia and hugged her. Even Mia couldn't stop a smile on her lips. She hadn't seen Lorelai smile like that before. Yes, a shy smile here and there but never a smile like this one. And her eyes… These wonderful blue eyes were shining like blue sapphires in the sunlight. Mia had never seen anyone's eyes shine lie hers. She was happy that she was able to help Lorelai.

Out of the corner of her eye Lorelai could see Sookie still standing in the door. Lorelai jumped up, ran over to Sookie and also hugged her. Mia, who had followed her back, was now smiling at Sookie and pulled Lorelai away.

"So, and now I'm going to show you this town and the place that has the best coffee you've ever had."

Mia put her arm around Lorelai's shoulder and so they were walking in the direction of the town square.

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**hihi... can you guess where they're going? ;) **

**soo... pleaaaase tell me your thoughts again... I really need to know what you're thinking right now.**

**Jule**


	3. Chapter 2

**OMG... you guys really are incredible... I never got so many reviews before... god, I love you all so much hug you make me speechless... and making me speechless is like making Lorelai speechless... it's almost impossible.**

**well, and there we are right on topic... speechless Lorelai ;)**

**I'm sorry that I can't abswer all your questions in the reviews... it's not because I have no answer... I do have one to all of your uestions... but I just can't answer the uestions because it would give the whole story away.**

**but I will say something to the Rory question... many of you asked me where Rory is and the only thing I can say to that without giving anything away is: She is not there... please accept that.**

**ok... and i know the diner was probably not there when Lorelai was 19 but hey this is an AU story so let's say Luke opened the diner a few months ago...**

**ok... my longest AN ever lol... just enjoy the new chapter.**

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**Chapter 2**

Lorelai and Mia were walking through town together. Mia showed her the important things in town and told her everything about the people in town. Lorelai decided that this was a crazy little town with all its events. But exactly that was what made her love the town even more. She had the feeling that she belonged here.

"Oh, and sweetheart, if you have the feeling that you see Kirk everywhere then please don't think you're crazy. That boy has so many jobs that I think he doesn't even know where already had worked at himself," Mia told her. Lorelai was amazed by all the stories about the people here. But when Mia suddenly stopped, Lorelai didn't even realize it because she was so deep in thought. She had just kept walking until Mia had grabbed her wrist. Lorelai looked at the building in front of which they had stopped.

Over the door was written in big letters "Williams Hardware" but when she looked through the window she saw a small Diner instead.

"And here, sweetheart, you can get the best coffee in the whole wide world." Together they entered the Diner. But Lorelai was so busy with looking around that she immediately bumped into someone. She had tried to keep her balance but it was too late. The both fell to the floor and Lorelai was now lying on the person she had bumped into. Everyone in the diner stopped eating. Mia really had to try to keep herself from laughing out loud and helped Lorelai to get up.

The guy Lorelai had bumped into was now standing up as well and was about to start complaining about her not paying attention when he looked at her and suddenly couldn't move anymore. He had never seen this young woman before but she fascinated him. Her shiny hair, which was falling over her shoulders in brown curls, and her beautiful face made her look like a princess. Her eyes, however, were the most enchanting thing. He was sure that he had never seen such blue and oratorical eyes before.

Lorelai looked at him with a shy and apologizing face.

"And the man who you so greeted so lovingly is Lucas," said Mia suddenly and ripped them both out of their thoughts.

"You know you're the only one who can call me that, Mia," replied Luke a little grumpy and turned back around to Lorelai.

"I am Luke," he introduced himself and held his hand out to her. Lorelai and Luke shook hands but he didn't get more than another shy smile from her.

A little confused he looked at Mia and then back at Lorelai but Mia was talking again before he could say anything else.

"Go Lucas, bring my beautiful company and me old lady a coffee, please." She looked at Luke with an 'I'll explain later' look and sat down at one of the tables with Lorelai.

Mia gave Lorelai a menu and took one herself.

"I can really recommend Lucas' pancakes. Together with some eggs and bacon. Hmmm…" Mia rubbed her stomach while saying that but stopped when she looked at Lorelai. Since Mia gave her the menu she didn't move and didn't take a look at the menu.

"What's going on, sweetheart? You not hungry?" Lorelai looked down in embarrassment and played nervously with the menu in her hand. It took Mia some time to get what was going on but then she got it.

"Oh, sweetheart, the food is on me. We are celebrating your new job and besides that I don't want you to starve to death." Lorelai looked Mia in the eye and smiled at her in thanks. While she read the menu, Luke came to their table to bring their coffee. Lorelai put the menu down immediately and watched Luke pour their coffee. As soon as her cup was filled she grabbed it and took a big sip of it. Mia had been right. This coffee was heavenly. She closed her eyes and took another sip.

"You know that coffee is unhealthy. It'll kill you someday." If Lorelai would give only one noise from her she would've probably laughed out loud now but now she just beamed and shook her head. Again Luke looked at Mia in confusion. As beautiful as this woman was she was weird somehow.

And Again Mia just looked at him and so he went back behind his counter.

For a moment they both looked at their menus again until Mia broke the silence.

"And, did you decide on anything yet, sweetheart?" Lorelai looked over the menu a last time and then nodded. She put her menu on the table and pointed with her finger at the pancakes.

"Okay, so you want pancakes. Anything else?" Lorelai turned a page and then pointed at the eggs. Mia had to smile.

"With eggs. And let me guess. You want bacon as well?" Lorelai had to smile as well and nodded again. Mia got up and walked over to the counter to tell Luke their order.

"Hey Lucas, we'd like to have some pancakes with eggs and bacon," she said and Luke wrote it down. When Mia was about to turn around to go back to the table he stopped her.

"Mia, who is she?" He made a head movement over to Lorelai who was looking out the window dreamily. Mia sat down on a stool at the counter for a moment.

"I don't know. She came here three weeks ago and wanted a room at the inn. She didn't talk to anyone since then. I found her crying today. She doesn't have any money left and was scared that she would have to go back to her parents. So, I just gave her a job and offered her the potting shed to live in." Luke frowned.

"She didn't speak to anyone since then? Why?"

"I have no idea, Lucas. The only things I know is hat her name is Lorelai Victoria Gilmore, she is 19 years old and usually lived in Hartford." Luke looked over to Lorelai. This young woman had so many secrets. All this fascinated him even more.

"She is beautiful, isn't she?" Mia smiled knowingly at him. He didn't realize that he had practically starred at Lorelai.

"Mia!" he warned her but he couldn't stop himself from smiling as well.

"Be nice to her, Luke, I think she needs that." With these words she left the counter and walked back to Lorelai.

"Okay, I'm back," she said and said down at the table. Lorelai looked away from the window back to Mia.

"Good sweetheart, now be warned. Miss Patty and Babette." She pointed at the two women who were standing on the other side of the street and were in a heated discussion.

"Those two are the gossip queens in town. Don't let them know anything about you or the whole town will know about it in 5 minutes. Last week…" she started to tell her but Lorelai stopped listening because something else caught her attention. This Luke guy seemed nice somehow. Even if she didn't spent that much time with him yet. Something about him intrigued her. And he didn't look that bad either. She watched him for a while how he made new coffee, wiped the counter or served the guests until Mia's voice pulled her back into present time.

"Are you even listening to me, dear?" She asked with a smile on her face. Of course she didn't miss what Lorelai had starred at the whole time.

Lorelai looked at her apologizing.

"Oh it's ok, sweetheart, I know that it is more interesting to look at a handsome man than listen to an old woman talk." Lorelai started to blush and looked down in embarrassment. Mia thought that it was really cute and started to picture how their kids would look in her head until she looked at the clock.

"Well, how cute it may is to watch you two. It's a little late already and we should go back to the inn. I have to show you some things so that you can start working tomorrow." Lorelai only nodded and got up. Together they walked over to the door and Mia yelled while walking out.

"Bye Lucas!" Luke turned around and waved at the two women. Lorelai waved back with a shy smile on her face and then she left the Diner.

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**aaaaand she met Luke... yay... now the story can really start... it's gonna be fun ;)**

**ok... you know what I want from you... your thoughts... I really love all of your thoughts... so give 'em to me ;)  
**

**Jule**


	4. Chapter 3

**heeey guys... thank you again for all your reviews... not as much as the other two chapters but still so many that you made me speechless again ;) god, I love you all so much **

**And you made me realize in your reviews that Lorelai and Mia forgot to eat in the last chapter... oy... let's just say that Luke was so busy with checking out Lorelai that he just forgot their orders XD**

**And I'm sorry for this chapter... there is nothing really happening... it's just a filler... but well... I hope you enjoy reading it anyways.**

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**Chapter 3**

The following weeks went great for Lorelai. She liked the job as a maid and Mia was totally open to her suggestions for small changes. The changes would make the rooms feel homey she had said. Lorelai had been so busy that she hadn't been able to go to this Luke again and drink a coup of his heavenly coffee. But Mia and Sookie never stopped teasing her with it. Every time Lorelai was somewhere else with her thoughts they started teasing her with the fact that she was thinking about Luke all the time. But she wasn't even thinking about him _all the time._ Well, maybe she was. She didn't know why her thoughts always drifted over to him but she couldn't stop them.

Totally lost in her thoughts she walked through the lobby and until a well-known French voice pulled her back to reality.

"O la la, look who's coming now. Our little linguistic genius." Lorelai looked at Michel in shock. She had no idea why he was always so mean to her. Since she started working here he always made some sarcastic remarks about her. But Lorelai didn't really care. She already had a plan for revenge.

When Michel was busy with one of the guests she ran behind the reception desk and sat down on his chair. When Michel turned around again to walk back to his place at the desk he saw Lorelai sitting on _his_ chair and his eyes widened in shock.

"What are you doing? That is my chair. Get up immediately!" Lorelai had fun watching Michel getting angry. He tried everything to get her off his chair but Lorelai just sat still. Only when he started to curse in French so that she didn't understand anything anymore she got up. As soon as his chair was Lorelai-free he sat down on it and gave her a triumphant smile. But he didn't reckon with Lorelai. Within one second she had grabbed his yellow post-it's and held them up over her head. Michel gasped.

"Put my post-it's down!" Lorelai just smiled at him and grabbed his green ones as well. Michel started to shake. You had the feeling he'd burst any moment.

"Put the post-it's down. You're ruining my system."

Michel jumped up from his chair and tried to get the post-it's from Lorelai. But she just held them a little higher and he had no chance anymore to get them. He jumped up and down in front of her, trying to get the little papers and started cursing so loud that the guest were looking at him.

"Michel!", a female voice echoed through the entrance hall he immediately stopped jumping and cursing. Everyone turned to the woman who just came out of the door behind the desk. Of course it was Mia who wanted to see what was causing all the noise in her office. Lorelai, too, was looking at Mia now but still had her hands with the post-it's up in the air.

"Did e say something mean to you again?", she asked and Lorelai nodded.

"Michel, how often do I have to tell you not to insult Miss Gilmore? If you keep that up then the next person you'll insult will be the boss of the unemployment agency." Michel looked crestfallen und only whispered a "Sorry Mia" but the only frowned at that.

"I'm not the one you have to apologize to."

"I'm sorry, Miss Gilmore," he said. Lorelai just smiled at him and put the post-it's down again. Michel grabbed them immediately and put them back into order.

Mia and Lorelai both had to try not to laugh out loud at that.

"If you want to, you can go now, Lorelai. You're done for today," said Mia who had turned away from Michel. Lorelai smiled and nodded before she headed outside.

She walked around the inn until she reached the potting shed behind the hotel and next to the small pond. Mia had cleaned and renovated it for her so that she would be able to live in it. She had even given her old furniture from the inn. Lorelai liked it here. It was small and comfortable and not everyone could say that he had a small pond directly beside his house.

Lorelai changed from her work clothes into her normal clothes and decided to go for a walk.

Slowly she strolled through the streets of Stars Hollow and absorbed every small little detail she saw. She walked Weston's with its delicious cakes that you could see in the window. She took in the smell of the flowers in front of the flower shop. Once she saw a little Korean girl, not older than 3, running past her from the playground. On her shirt the girl had written "God loves you" and Lorelai saw her hiding something before she disappeared into the antique store. Lorelai had to smile again. This town was just so crazy. When she walked past Miss Patty's dance studio she stopped for a moment and watched the kids dancing.

They looked so cute in their little costumes. Her walk led her over to the gazebo where she sat down on a bench and enjoyed the sun. Again she was deep in thought. But this time not in Luke thoughts. This time it were thoughts about how much her life had changed in the last few months.

The calamity thee years ago had turned her life upside down. She never had had a good relationship with her parents but after that it got even worse.

She became reserved to everyone until she was finally brave enough to run away from home exactly a month ago. Lorelai couldn't believe how much had changed since then. She had a home and a job. She had found friends in Mia and Sookie. She was finally able to smile again!

She sat there for some time just thinking. After some time she didn't even know anymore how long she had been sitting there. Only when she felt a hand on her shoulder she came back to reality.

She looked up and saw Luke standing in front of her. He had watched her through the diner window the whole time and when she still sat there after a long time he had decided to go out there and check if everything was alright.

He sat down next to her on the bench and gave her a Luke's bag and to-go-cup.

"I saw you sitting here and thought that you may be hungry." Lorelai gave him a shy smile and took a sip from the coffee. This heavenly taste made her feel like sitting on a cloud. How does he make this good coffee?

She looked over to him out of the corner of her eye and saw that he was watching her. When Luke realized that she had caught him he blushed and asked,

"And? Do you like it here so far?" Lorelai smiled and nodded. Oh yeah, she really liked it here.

"Okay, it was so obvious of you to say that but you didn't see one of those crazy town events yet."

And so they kept sitting there for a while longer. Luke told her more about the town and their crazy town events and she listened to his every word. Every now and then she commented one of his stories with a smile or a nod. And sometime during the conversation she was wondering if she could add Luke to her list of new friends. And decided that this question could only be answered with a definite YES.

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**see... just a filler... and the next chapter will be a filler to BUT with lots and lots of LL fluff... but then there'll be chapter 5... and chapter 5 will bring us forward in the stoy ;) **

**so, and now tell me your thoughts again. I love them **

** Jule**


	5. Chapter 4

**Oh my gosh, guys... I'm so sorry... I didn't wanna wait so long for the next update but I just started working at my internship and everything got a little busy. I'm really sorry... **

**but well, thank you for all your reviews... I love you guys so much... even if it weren't as much as usually... still love you. oh and thanks to whoever told me that you couldn't review annonymous... I didn't realize I had that function turned off lol...**

**and I'm sorry for this chapter... really short and really just some LL fluff... but I promise the next one will be more important and bring us a little forward in the story. **

**now enjoy.**

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**Chapter 4**

If someone would compare the Lorelai from a month ago with the Lorelai now they would never believe that it is the same person. How a person could change so much within a month was unbelievable When Lorelai came to Stars Hollow she was scared off, shy and totally reserved. The Lorelai now was the total opposite. High-spirited, open for everything new and totally crazy. She seemed to like living again.

With a pink cotton candy in her hand Lorelai was walking through the town square. The town was having one of its famous events again. Lorelai was looking at all the colorful booths with interest. Almost every person in town had its on booth. Babette and Morey were selling cat care products. Mrs. Patty had built her own little theatre and was showing all the little ones how her career started. Gipsy showed everyone who wanted to know about it how a car engine works and Sookie was selling so many delicious things.

Of course that wasn't all. There were so many more booths and at the end of the day there was supposed to be a firework. And all this just because February was ending. Because it was the _'the end of the shortest month of the year' _party. Taylor didn't have a anything to celebrate in February yet so he came up with this one.

When Lorelai looked at all the booths again she realized that one person was missing.

Slowly she turned around and looked over to the dark diner. She threw the empty stick of her cotton candy in the nearest trash and started walking over to the diner. Reaching the door she saw that the sign was turned to close but she just ignored it and walked into the diner. Luke was nowhere to be seen but there was light coming out of the kitchen. Lorelai sat down on one of the stools at the counter and waited. She realized that some ketchup bottles and all salt and pepper shakers were standing on the counter. One moment later Luke came out of the kitchen with a new package of salt in his hand and he jumped when he saw Lorelai.

"Jeez, you scared me." He put the salt package on the counter and looked at Lorelai. She only smiled back at him.

"What are you doing here? The diner is closed." She just smiled a little more, got up and walked over to the door. She grabbed the doorknob and opened and closed the door a few times to show him that the door wasn't closed. Luke just rolled his eyes.

"Okay, so the door wasn't closed," he said while Lorelai sat down on the stool again.

"But I still don't know why you're actually here."

Lorelai pointed her index finger back and forth between her and Luke and after that she pointed outside. Luke, who had spend a lot of time with Lorelai during the last month, new immediately what she meant.

"No, Lorelai! I hate those town events. I won't go to this stupid town event with you. It's not even good for anything. It's not even a real holiday. It's just stupid Taylor and his stupid ideas and the whole stupid town is just as stupid as he is because they're supporting his stupid ideas," Luke started to rant. Lorelai had her elbows on the counter and her chin lying in her palms. She just kept smiling at him. In the last few weeks she often saw Luke rant about something. And she loved it.

After some seconds of starring she pulled a crumpled sheet of paper out of her jean pocket. She unfolded it and showed t to Luke. He recognized it as one of the flyers Kirk was handing out to everyone in town to announce the fireworks. Lorelai pointed with her finger at the firework that was on the background of the flyer and then pointed at the clock.

"You want me to go to the fireworks with you?" Lorelai nodded.

"No," was Lukes short answer. Lorelai was shocked at first but then started to look at him with her puppy eyes.

"Don't look at me like this. It won't work."

She added the famous Gilmore pout to her puppy eyes. Luke slowly started to get weak but still shook his head. Lorelai thought for a moment and then had an idea. She smiled at Luke sweetly and then did it. The hair flip. That made Luke give up. He gave her a to-go-cup of coffee and turned off the kitchen lights.

"Okay, come on, we're going." Lorelai started to beam. She jumped off her stool, hugged Luke and started to clap her hands like a little kid. Even Luke could only smile at that.

Together they left the diner and walked side by side over to the town square. It was already dark outside and so all the colourful lights in the booths were shining. It looked beautiful to see the down gleam like that.

Lorelai and Luke walked along every booth and Lorelai was happily pointing at every booth and Luke could just roll his eyes at everything he saw. But Lorelai seemed to love it. Luke loved it when Lorelai laughed. Her laugh was addictive and her eyes always shone like starts when she smiled.

When they had seen everything Lorelai looked at her clock and saw that it was almost time for the fireworks. She grabbed Lukes arm and pulled him over the whole town square and sat down on her favourite bench near the gazebo. They watched how all the towns people came out of their booths and spread all over the square. Suddenly all lights turned off and the next moment the first firework was flying up in the air and lightened the sky in a beautiful purple-blue. The fireworks started to run its course and delighted the town's people with its beautiful colors.

Lorelai started to shiver. She was a little cold but that wasn't what made her shiver. It was the moment.

Luke, who noticed Lorelais shiver, put an arm around her shoulder and started to rub her upper arm to warm her up.

After a few minutes Lorelai put her head on his shoulder and so, in this position, they watched the rest of the fireworks.

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**see... I told you I'm sorry for this chapter... but the next one will definitely be better and more interesting AND I'll upload the next one sometime this weekend so you don'T have to wait. sound good?**

**well, even if this chapter sucked, please still tell me your thoughts. You know I love to hear/read them **

** Jule**


	6. Chapter 5

**Hiya guys,**

**I told you you'd get a new chapter this weekend ;) but boy I swear this chapter was so hard to get online... I started uploading something at around 1pm on saturday for my friend and now it is half past after midnight and the upload is still not finished... and the whole upload is slowing my internet down... nothing worked... everything took forever. But I got great help from cappu who translated half of the chapter for me when my computer didn't want to anymore. thanks again hug**

**and I wanna dedicate this chapter to Kathrin (copop) because she always gives me these great and long reviews huggels**

**so and now enjoy the new chapter **

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**Chapter 5**

Do you know it? That big smile that people have when something great happened to them? Or when they are in love? That big smile that carries away everyone who sees it?

Exactly that smile was Lorelai wearing since the fireworks.

Even if nothing had happened she just couldn't stop herself from smiling like that.

Luke had brought her to the diner after the fireworks to make her another to-go-cup of coffee and then he had walked her back to the Independence inn.

When they had stopped in front of the shed she called home he had said to her that, in the end, he was happy that he had accompanied her to the event and had kissed her goodbye on the forehead. Lorelai had no idea what all this meant to her or what she was feeling. But she knew that she just couldn't get rid of that smile.

On her way to get some things for Mia Lorelai was walking through the streets of Hartford. In the beginning she didn't really like it that she had to go to Hartford but now she was so deep in thought that she didn't pay attention to her surroundings.

She was just on her way back to the car that Mia borrowed her when she suddenly crashed into a person. The bags fell out of both of their hands. Lorelai bent down to gather her things up when the other person started to yell.

"Can't you watch where you are walking? If my expensive French dishes are broken now you are going to pay for it. Hello? I am talking to you, young lady. Don't you even have the policy to apologize? Did your mother never teach you that you apologize for something like this?"

Lorelai froze before the woman had even finished her first sentence. She knew that voice and she had hoped to never have to hear it ever again. Everything came back to her at the sound of this voice. All the memories and feelings from years ago. Fear was rising in her and she wanted nothing more than run away. Away from this place, this person and these memories and feelings. She wanted to hole up in her bed, pull the blanket over her head and never come back out again.

But the woman got impatient.

"Young lady, I am talking to you. Don't you have any manners? At least look at me when I am talking to you."

Lorelai closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She knew her mother too good and knew that there would be no way she could escape without looking her in the eye at least once. She put all the remaining things back into her bag and stood up. But Emily was faster and before Lorelai could turn around by herself Emily had grabbed her shoulder and turned her around.

Emily's eyes god wide in shock. She had never thought that she would see her daughter ever again.

"Lorelai?!" was all she could say. Lorelai started to shake. She couldn't sustain her mother's gaze and wanted to run away but Emily grabbed her arm and stopped her. Lorelai tried to get her arm free but Emily wouldn't let go.

"You don't think that I let you run away that easily again, young lady. What were you thinking running away from home like that? Just like that, in the middle of the night. Without leaving any note. Richard was worried sick." Lorelai just snorted at these words.

„What was that supposed to mean? You don't believe that we were worried about you? Even if you weren't an easy child in the last three years. We just tried to help you. The whole not talking thing is just ridiculous, Lorelai. Just because at that time –" But she couldn't say more because Lorelai had suddenly kicked Emily's shin to get her arm free from her. Lorelai grabbed her bags and started to run. She didn't stop or turn around. Only when she saw Mia's car three blocks later she slowed down. When she reached the car she just threw the bags on the backseat and sat down behind the steering wheel.

With a long sigh she let her head drop on the wheel. Tears were silently running down her cheeks. She had hoped to never see her parents again. She had known exactly that seeing them again would open the old wounds even more. The encounter with her mother was worse than she imagined. Not only did all those feelings and memories come flashing back at her when she heard her mother's voice for the first time but also the reproaches she had to endure all her life. The worst however was that if Lorelai hadn't kicked her in the shin her mother would have brought up the subject that led to their current situation. The event that occurred nearly three years ago. She couldn't have been able to stand it if Emily had mentioned it and in all likelihood dismissed it as a silly thing. Lorelai didn't see any other possibility than kicking her.

Lorelai sat there for a moment before she finally started the engine. She just couldn't sit there all day long could she? Tears were running down her face throughout the whole drive. It was not easy for Lorelai to keep the steering wheel straight because she was shaking so much. Before she headed back to the Inn however she stopped at Luke's Diner.

Lorelai didn't know how she got there but something led her to the diner. She got out of her car, passed the street and entered the diner. It was a slow time though. Only a few tables were occupied. Luke was standing behind the counter. His back facing her while he was re-filling the coffee maker. Lorelai just went over to the counter and waited. As Luke turned around and faced her his eyes lit up for a moment.

"Hey Lorelai nice to-," but Luke didn't get any further than that. He went silent when he saw her red and puffy eyes and just as his eyes met hers a fresh tear made it down her cheek. Instinctively he turned around and yelled into the kitchen: "Cesar I'm taking my 10. Take care of the guests will ya?"

He came out from behind the counter, wrapped his arm around Lorelai's shoulders and led her up to his apartment.

Luke closed the door and turned around to be face to face with Lorelai. He looked deeply into her red eyes. It hurt him intensely to see her like that. He had seen her many faces: calm and shy and of course he knew and loved her funny and radiant nature but this sight only saddened him.

Lorelai however couldn't hold her own emotions at bay any longer. She buried her face in Luke's chest and started to cry uncontrollably. She didn't cry those silent tears she shed in the car, no she let out every emotion and feeling she had bottled up deep inside her for all those years.

Luke immediately wrapped his arms around her and held her as close as possible. He slowly stirred both of them towards the couch and sat down. Lorelai was half in his lap while Luke let her cry. He didn't say a word, just held her close and slowly stroked his hand through her hair and over her back which seemed to calm her down. He just wanted to be there for her.

When Lorelai had calmed down and her sobs subsided Luke loosened his embrace and helped Lorelai into a sitting position. Their eyes met again and their gazes locked. The once so clear blue was now only a dull grey. Without breaking the eye contact Luke carefully brushed off the last remaining tear on her cheek and took her hands in his.

"Lorelai whoever did this to you, I despise him. I know we don't know each other for that long but I want you to know I'm always there for you when you need me Lorelai."  
His words mattered a lot to her and in order not to start crying again she simply smiled at him. The same smile she wore over the last few days and Luke couldn't help but reciprocate it.

"Do you want some coffee?" He asked and got up. Lorelai nodded and together they went back downstairs into the diner. Lorelai sat down at the counter while Luke prepared her coffee.

Luke handed her the to-go cup but before she left the diner Lorelai grabbed his pen and pad with which he takes the orders and scribbled something down. When she was finished she put the pen and pad down on the counter, flashed him another smile and left the diner.

Luke was confused for the moment and reached for the pad. He read the only but significant word she had written down.

**Thanks**

Luke didn't know what to think of it. Sure he was pleased but the note also confused him. Lorelai never wrote a note before in his presence. They always understood each other without them.

Luke reached for the phone and dialled the Inn's number. He needed to talk to Mia.

"Hey Lucas. What made you call such an old lady like me?"

"Hello Mia. First you know you are not that old and second I have a question."

"What do you have on your mind son?"

"Did Lorelai ever write any notes at the Inn in order to communicate better with you?" His heartbeat fastened while waiting for an answer.

"No, Lucas but it would make working with her easier and I think it would be a huge step into the right direction if she did it."

Luke's heart started to beat even faster after that answer.

"Thanks Mia. You were a great help." And Luke disconnected the call.

Lorelai never wrote a note before. That had to mean something. He didn't know what yet but he was sure it was good. Carefully he ripped out the page and put it into his pants pockets.

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**tadaa... told you we'd get forward with the story... okay... you still don't know why Lorelai isn't talking but Lorelai is warming up ;)**

**so as always... please tell me your thoughts. I really like to know what is going on in your heads after reading this **

**Jule**


	7. Chapter 6

**Heeeeya wave**

**oh god... you know, guys... I could hug you all to death... 21 reviews for the last chapter... I'm speechless... I never got so many reviews for one chapter before... but... when I think about it... hugging you guys to death wouldn't be a good solution... who would give me reviews then? XD**

**ok so... this is my new chapter, obviously, and it is the longest chapter so far... I really like this one and it is mostly LL fluff... except of the end... **

**enjoy...**

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**Chapter 6**

Everyone in Stars Hollow was amazed when Lorelai started to write notes.

The next one who got a note after Luke was Sookie. When Lorelai had walked into the kitchen the next morning Sookie had immediately pushed a cookie in Lorelai's mouth with the words "try this". Lorelai had needed a moment to chew the big cookie that had been stuffed into her mouth but when she was done she grabbed a pad and a pencil out of her bag, which she had stolen from Michel's desk before, wrote "delicious" on it and put it on the counter. Sookie who had a bowl in her hand at that moment and was counting how often she had stirred already let the bowl drop to the floor when she saw Lorelai's note. Lorelai just smiled and left the kitchen.

She also had shocked Mia like that. When she had been done with her shift for that day she had knocked on Mia's office door, walked in and when she had stood in front of Mia she had just put the note on Mia's desk. On the note wasn't just one word written, it was a whole sentence.

"I'm so thankful for everything you did for me." Mid didn't really know what to do at first but then she just stood up and hugged Lorelai.

Two weeks had passed since then and by now all the Stars Hollow citizens where used to Lorelai writing notes.

Mia and Luke had even bought her a small board last weeks so that it would be easier for her and she wouldn't have to walk around with loads of papers all the time.

And apparently Lorelai like to write short messages for the people.

One day at the diner she had driven Luke crazy and so he stopped giving her coffee. Lorelai had used that opportunity and wrote "jerk" on her board, held it so that Luke could read it and also stuck out her tongue. But before he could react she had jumped of her chair and ran out of the Diner. Annoying Luke was the most fun ever.

Luke was her bridge over troubled waters anyhow. On that day when he had comforted her, their friendship had reached a whole new level. He was there for her when she needed him and he let her feel that she could always count on him. Lorelai enjoyed that feeling because no one from her family had ever been there for her.

But the best thing was that Michel suddenly got sick and Mia couldn't find a stand-in for the desk on such short notice and so Lorelai took over Michel's place at the front desk for that time. The guest thought that it was funny that Lorelai didn't say a word and only communicated with them over her board. They didn't think anything about it they thought it's just some kind PR-Gag.

---

Lorelai was just walking through the lobby of the inn when she heard Sookie yelling after her.

"Lorelai, could you stop for a second?" She stopped and waited until Sookie had reached her.

"Sweetie, could you maybe borrow mw 10 dollar? I have to run to Doose's but I forgot my wallet at home this morning." Lorelai just nodded and gave Sookie her wallet and then pointed at Mia's office to tell her that she would just go in there for a minute.

Sookie opened the wallet to take the money out there but her gaze got stuck at Lorelai's driver's licence. She looked at the picture for a moment. Lorelai looked a little younger on that picture and she looked absolutely happy. Sookie started reading her personal details. _Hmm… she came from Hartford._ At the next moment Sookie looked up in confusion. She ran over to the reception desk and looked for today's date in the calendar.

Today was April 21st and Lorelai was born April 22nd 1968.

So tomorrow Lorelai would turn 20 and no one knew about it.

Two hours later Sookie was planning the best birthday party ever for Lorelai. She had talked with Luke and Mia. The party would be at the inn and Luke would keep her away from the inn so that Sookie and Mia could prepare everything. The whole town was invited and there would be a lot of music and fun. Sookie, obviously, was in charge of the pie. Two-storied with chocolate-coffee-flavor and lots of small yellow daisies as decoration.

---

Lorelai was totally confused when Mia told her the next morning that she has the day off.

She actually had been supposed to work at the desk today.

Without knowing what to do today she walked almost automatically over to Luke's.

She dropped herself on a chair at the counter and put her head in her hands. When Luke saw her like that he was immediately worried. He filled her a cup of coffee and placed it in front of her.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" he asked and she looked at him pouting.

"Boring", was the only thing she wrote on her board as answer.

"No work today?" he asked without giving anything away. Lorelai just shook her head. Luke started to think. What could he do so that she wasn't bored anymore? Today was her birthday after all. One moment later he had an idea.

"What do you say if we both would go bowling?" Lorelai, who was just taking a sip of her coffee, spit it back into the cup and looked at Luke appalled.

"Why are you looking like that?" he asked confused. "Don't tell me you've never been bowling before." She just shook her head and Luke sighed.

"Okay, then I'll teach you." Lorelai looked at him skeptically. She grabbed her board and wrote "really?" on it. Luke couldn't suppress a small laugh.

"Of course, come on." He walked over to the door and held it open for her. Lorelai looked at him for a moment longer then grabbed her jacket and left the diner with him.

---

The first problem when they reached the bowling alley was that Lorelai didn't wanna wear the shoes and so Luke had to run out again and buy her her own pair. When that problem was solved they both walked over to their alley. Luke explained the ground rules to her and then showed it to her.

"Okay, you saw how I did it. Now try it yourself." Lorelai got up a little unsure and grabbed a bowling ball. And then there was the next problem. You had to find a ball that wasn't too heavy for Lorelai. After ten minutes they had found a pink ball for kids that Luke could probably carry with only his pinky but Lorelai was happy.

Her first try went immediately in the gutters. Pouting she turned around to Luke. Luke had to smile.

„You have one more try. Come on, I show you." Luke walked directly behind Lorelai and put one arm around her and with the other one he took her hand with the ball. Lorelai's heart started to beat like crazy and his touches send little shivers through her body. She heard how Luke explained something to her but she couldn't understand what it was. The only thing she concentrated on was the feeling of Luke's body against hers. His warmth and smell that embraced her. His muscles that tensed a little with every move. Lorelai was ripped out of her trance when she suddenly lost the body contact. She hadn't realized that they had let go of the ball.

Luke took a deep breath. He was relieved that they finally had let go of the ball. The near contact to Lorelai had almost driven him crazy. The smell of her shampoo and perfumes had made him feel like heaven. The feeling of her small body against his chest had almost made him numb and his heart was still beating like crazy.

His feelings confused him so much that he threw his next two balls directly into the gutters and was laughed at by Lorelai.

During the game Lorelai got better and better and started to really like that game. She sabotaged Luke's plays again and again by tickling him or nudging him. At the end of the game Lorelai wrote in big letters "WINNER" on her board.

"Yeah, but only because you always distracted me." She just stuck her tongue out again.

But now it was time for Lorelai's surprise party and so Luke drove her back to the independence inn. Together they walked into the hotel and when they reached the dining room they were greeted by loud surprise screams and happy birthday singing. Lorelai's face was the best. Surprise and happiness were mirrored in her eyes. Mia and Sookie immediately greeted her with hugs and kisses and then the rest of the guest congratulated her as well. Luke rather stood in the background and watched all the happenings.

The party was absolutely great and Lorelai had the time of her life. Everyone who was important to her was there. They partied, laughed, had fun and enjoyed the evening. Lorelai had never gotten so many presents before and now she even got some from people she barely knew. The though made her heart swell. She was also totally impressed by the masterpiece of pie Sookie had made. Accordingly she was the one who at most of it. It was a miracle that she didn't burst in the end.

Later when it had gotten a little quieter and everyone was busy with someone else she realized that she hadn't seen Luke anymore since their arrival and so she started looking for him. After five minutes she found him outside sitting on the stairs on the back porch, looking out to the small pond. She sat down next to him and together they looked out at the pond for a little while. After some time she grabbed her board and started to write on it.

"Did you know about this," she wrote. Luke wiped it away, took the chalk from her and started to write as well. Words would have destroyed the moment.

"Yeah, but the party was Sookie's idea. " She smiled at him, wiped the words away again and wrote „Thanks anyways". Lorelai put the board aside and gave Luke a kiss on the cheek as a thank you. When she broke away from him she looked deep into his eyes. They both didn't realize how the space between their faces got smaller. Only when their lips met they realized what was happening. This kiss made her whole body weak. His lips were unbelievably gentle and soft and his right hand carefully caressed her cheek. Lorelai couldn't stop herself from totally giving into the kiss. Even Luke couldn't stop himself. Her soft lips on his were an unbelievable feeling and he wished that kiss would last forever. But unfortunately they both had to breathe again and broke apart. Luke still looked into Lorelai's eyes. In he last few moth he had learned to read them and was relieved when he found a happy gleam in them. When he averted his eyes from her he put one arm around her and pulled her nearer to him. Lorelai put her head on his shoulder and together they again looked out to the pond.

---

The first guests were leaving the party and so Sookie started looking for Lorelai. When she found her snuggled up in Lukes arms on the porch she decided to let them decide when they want to come back in.

But when all the guests had left and Lorelai and Luke still didn't show up inside Sookie had no other choice then to disturb them.

She silently cleared her throat when she stood behind them. They immediately jerked up and looked at Sookie. Luke's face started to turn into twelve different shades of red.

"Sorry, I just wanted to tell you that all the guests have left and I'm going now too." Lorelai got up and thanked her friend with a bone crushing hug. Sookie broke the hug, smiled and winked at her and left Luke and Lorelai alone again.

"I should go then too," said Luke quietly before he took one step closer to Lorelai, put his hands on her upper arms and gently kissed her goodnight. When he broke away from Lorelai, she started to look after him until the darkness had swallowed him.

Lorelai walked back to the shed, opened the door and fell down in her bed smiling. This really was one of the best days in her life.

---

Lorelai woke up, dripping in sweat, in the middle of the night. There was this dream. This dream from the past. It scared her but she couldn't remember what exactly she had dreamed about. Only the certainty that it was the dream from her past. It scared her because she didn't want to be reminded of her past. That times had been to horrible.

Lorelai's body was shaking and she was afraid to close her eyes again. The fear that the dream would come back was too much. When she couldn't take it anymore she threw the blankets aside, pulled on her coat and shoes and walked out into the dark night.

Again she automatically walked over to Luke's. It was after midnight so the door was of course closed. But Luke had showed her a few weeks ago where the spare key was and so she just took it from its hiding place. She quietly opened the door, closed it again and made her way upstairs. She stopped in front of his apartment door. She knocked on the door really carefully. At first Luke thought he had imagined the knocking but when he heard it again he knew that there really was someone in front of his door. Tired and grumpy he rolled out of bed and walked over to the door. Ready to kill the person who dared to wake him in the middle of the night he opened the door.

"Lorelai!?", he said in shock when he saw her at the door. Hair tousled and sticky, eyes red and swollen and a shaking body. Without thinking further he let her into his apartment and closed the door behind her. Before he could do anything else he had Lorelai in his arms. She had her arms slung around him and clung to his shirt on his back. With her head on his chest she held him as tight as possible. Luke didn't know what else to do and also put his arms around her and carefully swayed with her in his arms. After some time he broke the embrace and looked at her.

"Lorelai, what's wrong?" he asked worried. She grabbed her board and wrote "hold me. Please just hold me" on it. He didn't need to read more and led her over to his bed. Together they lay down under the blankets and Luke did nothing else than holding her in his arms all night.

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**what do you think,** **what do you think,** **what do you think??? this is one of my favorite chapters so far... and Lorelai's boars... just imagine it in normal paper size but she has a handle on it and carries it around like a purse loool**

**ok... please, as always, tell me your thoughts about this chapter.**

**Jule **


	8. Chapter 7

**Heya guys, sorry it took me a little longer this time but this chapter was the last one that I had already written in german so I wanted have the next chapter written first before I translated this one. But I'm done with writing chapter 8 now (and I think you'll really like it) and so here is chapter 7 for you all.**

**At first I wanna thank you all for your reviews again. I so love them all and each and every one of them makes me smile :D**

**And I wanna dedicate this chapter to _The Mrs. Ventimiglia_ (I think your name is Marie, isn't it?) because she and Kathrin (Copop) always leave the best and longest reviews ;)**

**And now enjoy  
**

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**Chapter 7**

Lorelai woke up when the first beams of sunlight tickled her face and she heard the sound of the chirping birds outside the window.

It was so comfortable in bed that she snuggled even more into the pillows. But something wasn't quiet right. The pillow smelled and felt totally different than hers and she felt that she wasn't lying under her usually scratchy blanket.

Slowly she opened her eyes and looked around. Se was in a small apartment that consisted of only one room.

The next moment she heard how a door being opened and Luke came into the apartment without realizing that Lorelai was awake and walked over to the kitchen. When Lorelai saw him everything that had happened yesterday came back to her. The bowling trip, the surprise party, that amazing kiss, and, of course, the nightmare and her escape into Luke's protecting arms. She smiled at that memory. Luke had held her the whole night. After some time they had lied down on his bed. He on his back, she with her head on his shoulder and her face buried in the crook of his neck. And he had just kept holding her. He had calmingly stroked her hair and back and had just kept holding her. At some point she had finally fallen asleep. She didn't know if Luke had slept at all but she knew one thing for sure: he had held her all night.

Lorelai wiped the sleep out of her eyes and sat up. Luke heard the noises behind him and turned around.

"Hey, you're awake. Good morning!" she just beamed at him as an answer, threw her legs out of bed and walked over to the kitchen table to sit down there.

"I made you breakfast. Because I didn't know what exactly you would be up to this morning I just made a bit of everything." With these words he started to set the table with scrambled eggs, Pancakes, Muffins and everything else that you could usually get for breakfast at the diner. Lorelai couldn't believe how much effort he had put into it. She jumped up, gave him a small kiss, grabbed her board and wrote "THANKS!" on it. Luke smiled, stroked her hand for a moment and sat down at the table with her to enjoy their breakfast.

During the breakfast Luke told Lorelai about everything that had happened so far this morning. Starting with Kirk's abnormal whishes and ending with Taylor who had again tried to convince Luke to hand out some festival flyer to his costumers. Lorelai listened intently to his words and laughed at some particularly funny things. She looked at Luke and couldn't stop herself from smiling. This was nice. It was nice to have breakfast with someone, to "talk" about the day with someone and to just not be alone.

Luke had disappeared into the bathroom for a moment and Lorelai had put the dishes into the sink and then sat down on the couch. She was so deep in thought that she didn't realize it when Luke came out of the bathroom and sat down next to her. She only realized it when he carefully started to play with her hair. Lorelai awoke from her trance and looked to the side, directly into his eyes.

"Hey…", Luke only whispered without breaking their eye contact. He was confused. Confused about what they were now? Were they together now? Did the kiss mean something to her? Does she really want all this? What was going through her head right now? He wanted to ask her all this but didn't know how and the fact that she wouldn't _really _answer him didn't make the whole thing easier.

But before he could think about it even longer Lorelai had broken their eye contact and had grabbed her board. Luke was really curious what she was writing now but he had totally not expected to read what she had written in the end.

Will you be my boyfriend?

Yes, maybe, no?

was written on the board as if they were still in elementary school. But everyone who knew Lorelai also knew that this was just her humor.

Luke didn't know at first what to answer to it. He thought about the questions again which he had wanted to ask Lorelai but instead answered them for himself now.

Lorelai watched Luke intently. It made her nervous that he didn't react at all. Did she do the wrong thing? Did she misinterpret the kiss yesterday? Did he find the whole thing too immature? She only had wanted to lighten the atmosphere a little. It was just her kind of humor.

Lorelai was brought back from her thought when Luke suddenly took the chalk and the board out of her hands and checked off one of her possible answers. Lorelai's heart started to race and she stopped breathing. What answer did he check off? What would she do if he said no? And what if it a yes? Oh god, what if he had checked off maybe? This whole checking off thing had been an bad idea!

Luke turned the board around so that she could see is answer and Lorelai had the feeling that her heart would beat out of her chest when she read it.

Yes.

He had checked off 'yes'. Lorelai sighed in relieve and couldn't stop herself from throwing her arms around his neck and to hold him close. Of course Luke didn't hesitate for a second and so his arms found their way around Lorelai's waist. Both just held onto each other. Each lost into their own thoughts.

Luke would have never thought that anybody besides Rachel would ever bring such feeling up in him again. After Rachel had left him a year ago he had been angry, really angry. But when the anger had disappeared he had found resignation in its place. Rachel had been his first real love and had really thought that they would be together forever. But when she had left him for her job he had thought that he would be single forever because he would never be able to love someone as much as he had loved Rachel. Lorelai had totally confused his feelings, though. He couldn't really say he was in love yet but something was telling him that he was not far away from it anymore. Since Lorelai had come into his life he hadn't thought about Rachel for one second.

Lorelai, as well, was thinking about the past. About the time before…

At that time she had Christopher. Even if they both had been young she still had loved him somehow. But now she only felt hatred towards him. She really hated him. It was the same hatred she also had towards her parents. After everything that had happened three years ago she would have never thought that she would ever be able to trust someone like this again. But Luke had changed everything. She had immediately felt save in his presence and then there were also the butterflies in her stomach that started to fly around every time she saw Luke. But there was a problem… Sex. How was she supposed to explain to Luke that she couldn't sleep with him? It wasn't the sex itself that scared her it was the thing that could be connected to it. But how should she explain that to Luke? He would probably not want her anymore if she wouldn't sleep with him. Who wants a relationship without sex anyways?

Without really realizing it Lorelai had started to cry and her whole body started to shake. Luke broke their embrace a little and looked into her eyes what only made her cry harder. Luke cupped her face in his hand and wiped away the tears with his thumbs.

"Hey, why are you crying now? There is no reason to cry", he said calmingly and gave her a smile. Lorelai took a deep breath. If she wouldn't tell him now it would only be worse later. She grabbed her board and started to write.

"You don't really want me", she wrote on the board what totally confused Luke.

"Why wouldn't I want you? Lorelai, I checked off ‚yes'. If I wouldn't wanna be with you I wouldn't have done that!" Lorelai looked at him. God, how she'd love it to be together with him. She took a deep breath again and kept writing.

"I can't sleep with you!" She pushed the board into his hands, pulled her legs up to her chest and faced away from him. Luke had to read the words on the board more than once to get what all this was meant. So, she thought that he probably wouldn't want to be with her because she couldn't sleep with him?

He put the board aside, put one finger under her chin and moved her so that she was looking at him.

"Can I ask you two questions that you'll answer honestly?" Lorelai looked at him, unsure about what he was up to, but then nodded.

"Okay, does it have something to do with your past? With the event in your past that stopped you from speaking?" Lorelai was relieved by that question. She didn't know what she thought he would ask her but she was relieved about this question and nodded as an answer. Luke didn't know what he was supposed to think after that answer. To ask his second question would be even harder. He took a deep breath.

„Good. You have to really answer my second question honestly now, Lorelai. Whatever answer it will be, please be honest. You know you can trust me." His words made her nervous. What kind of question would it be? She looked into his eyes and nodded again. So, Luke asked his second question.

„Lorelai, did you… did you get raped or something… at that time?" Lorelai looked at his motionless. She had expected everything but not that. But she could understand that he would think something like that. Lorelai took his hands in hers, looked deep into his eyes and shook her head. Luke sighed in relieve and just had to take her in his arms. But he turned into serious Luke again pretty soon and looked at her.

"I'm not good with words but you have to know that I wanna be together with you! Even if you can not or do not want to sleep with me. I don't care. Since the day we met you've changed my whole life. You changed it to something good!" Luke couldn't believe himself that he had said something like that but he meant it. Lorelai felt the tears welling up in her eyes again. Happy tears. She grabbed the board and wrote in big letters "Softie!" on it. She just couldn't hold it back. Luke laughed and just took Lorelai in his arms.

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**I'm done. What did you think? I guarantee you that you'll absolutely love the next two chapters because they'll contain the two most inportant things in this story But before we get to that I wanna know what you thought about this chapter... You know I love all your thoughts. Don't hold them back. Just let them free ;)**

** Jule**


	9. Chapter 8

**Hiya,**

**ooookay... chapter 8... I didn't wanna post it before I don't have chapter 9 competely written... but Jessi (Akarana) put me in such a good mood today and I am hal way done with chapter 9 anyways I thought I would just post this chapter. I think you all are really gonna like it... I'm really interested to see what you'll all think about this. This chapter makes a REALLY big step in this story. I so can't wait for your reviews!**

**And I'm gonna dedicate this chapter to xogilmoregirlsox because she really tried to give me a loooong review for my last chapter... and it worked ;) and to Jessi (even if she doesn't read this story) because she put me in this happy mood  
**

**now... enjoy...**

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**Chapter 8**

When is the moment a relationship starts to get serious? Is it the first time you have sex together? Probably not.

Or is it after you went to a couple of dates together? Is it when you can't wait to see the other one again? When you are waiting all day long for your partner to get out of work,

That is what Luke was thinking about right now while he was getting ready for his date with Lorelai.

Suddenly he froze. He got it. He always couldn't wait for Lorelai to get out of work. Every day he was waiting for her. He wanted to spend as much time with her as possible and for him the day just doesn't have enough hours. And all this is what made him realize that a relationship starts to get serious as soon as you fall in love with your partner.

And he was falling hard and deep.

Lorelai and Luke had been going out for over a month now and Lorelai had been sleeping at his apartment almost every night. When she had to work the night shift was the only time she had slept in the potting shed. They were practically living together. Thinking about it he thought that it would be nice to live together with Lorelai. To make breakfast for her in the morning and to enjoy a nice dinner together in the evenings.

Luke liked these thoughts but he knew that it was definitely too soon for them to live together.

Luke closed the door to his apartment and walked downstairs to his truck. Today was his and Lorelais two months anniversary. But not the we-are-together-for-two-months-now anniversary. Two months ago was the first time they met.

Luke had to smile when he thought back to that day. Lorelai crashing into his diner and into him, not saying a word the whole time and drinking coffee like it is the best thing in the world. That day he thought she was absolutely crazy. Beautiful but crazy.

And today he knew he had been right that day. But he loved her nonetheless!

Stopping the truck in front of the inn he walked through the front door. He was surprised when Lorelai came running over to him with the biggest smile ever on her face. She kissed him passionately and after their lips broke apart she started to dance in his arms.

Mia and Sookie were standing at the front desk, looking at them and smiling as well. Luke was confused.

"What's going on here? Why is everyone so happy?"

Lorelai looked up to him, smiling brightly and then grabbed her board. She hastily wrote something on it and showed it to him.

"I'm going to have my own house" was written on it. Now Luke was even more confused. Lorelai had only been living here for three months and been working for two. How can she have enough money to buy a house?

"A house? But how can you afford that?" And that's when Mia stepped in.

"My son is going to be a father. He is giving me my first grandchild and I want to be near them when it happens. So, I'm moving to Hartford. And I gave Lorelai my house here. She needs it more than I do. She is going to put a hundred dollar away every month for it and after some time it'll be enough money to completely buy the house from me. But until then she can live in it and do whatever she wants with it." Luke was speechless.

He always knew that Mia was a generous person but this gesture was unbelievable. He couldn't help himself and just had to stare at Mia in disbelieve.

"Don't look at me like this, Lucas," Mia said with a smile. Luke shook his head.

"I'm sorry, Mia, but I just can't believe it," he said.

"I know, I'm an unbelievable nice old lady. And now go and have a lovely evening you two." Luke smiled at Mia, put his arm around Lorelai and walked her out to his truck.

They drove to a fancy restaurant near Litchfield and had a nice dinner. Lorelai couldn't stop smiling the whole evening and Luke's heart was melting at seeing her that happy.

And that night when they were lying content and happy in each others arms Lorelai couldn't stop thinking about how happy she really was

She had Luke, a boyfriend who made her happy, who was patient and gentle with her, a boyfriend who accepted her for who she was. But Luke wasn't the only reason why she was so happy. Mia and Sookie were a big part of it too. They were there for her and helped her every time. They didn't judge her every move like her old "friends" did.

Lorelai tried to come up with a way to describe all the feelings she had since she moved to Stars Hollow. She was sure that she had never felt so comfortable and welcome before. Everywhere she went, everyone she met… It felt like being a part of a big family. At first it was a nice feeling to be so relaxed and she had thought it felt like a vacation. When you're sitting on the porch of a rented cabin, looking at everything around you and listening to every noise and just be relaxed. After some time she thought it felt more like a dream. These light feelings you have while dreaming and feeling like everything is wonderful and possible. But now she knew that what she was feeling was the feeling of being at home.

A smile spread over Lorelai's face and she snuggled closer to Luke.

Yap, she was at home.

---

The next day was moving day. Well, Lorelai didn't have much to move into the house but Mia had some stuff she had to move out of the house first.

Lorelai was giddy all day. Smiling, dancing around and humming songs in her head while packing her few things in boxes. Luke knocked at the door of the shed at around 3pm.

"Hey, you ready?", he asked while opening the door. Lorelai smiled at him like a little kid that just got a toy from her parents and nodded. Luke smiled back at her and grabbed one of the boxes.

"Okay, come on, I'll help you pack those into my truck." Lorelai skipped over to him and gave him a short kiss before she herself grabbed a box and carried it to his truck.

The whole moving in process was over pretty soon. Mia had left Lorelai the complete kitchen plus the chairs and the table. She had also left some cabinets and shelves in the living room and the big closet in the bedroom. Lorelai had taken her bed and bedside table with her from the shed and had gotten an old couch, white couch from Ms. Patty. Luke didn't feel comfortable receiving a couch from Ms. Patty, who knows what she did with it before, but Lorelai loved the old thing and so it stayed. Luke had found a really small and really old TV in the garage when he had cleaned it out for Mia and she told him that Lorelai could keep it. It even worked without problems and Luke was really surprised that the thing was a color TV and not a black and white one. It definitely looked old enough.

While Luke did all this Lorelai had bought some different fabrics and was making some different curtains out of them. Wine red ones for the bedroom, yellow and orange ones for the living room and white ones for the kitchen and her soon to be sewing room that was attached to the kitchen.

At the end of the day both, Luke and Lorelai, were standing in the living room and looking at their finished work.

"It looks still kinda empty, don't you think?", Luke asked and put an arm around Lorelai. She shook her head, smiled and just wrote "Nah, it looks home-y" in her board.

Luke chuckled and started to lead her upstairs to the bedroom to unpack the last four boxes up there.

After entering the bedroom Lorelai immediately grabbed the three boxes with all her clothes and started to put the clothes into her closet while Luke grabbed another box and started to unpack it. It mostly contained some books and CDs that he put in a shelf next to the door. When he was finished he sat down on Lorelai's bed and watched her. Suddenly he realized another small box staying beside the bed. He wanted to do Lorelai a favor and started to unpack the box so that they'd me done sooner.

It was mostly the stuff she usually had on her bedside table like her reading glasses, another book, a picture of them together and some magazines. He took the magazines out of the box and wanted to place them in one of the drawers of her bedside table when suddenly a picture fell out of one magazine.

Luke picked it up and looked at it. It was a picture of a baby. The baby was wrapped in a pink blanket and still had one of those pink paper bracelets around her tiny arm that they put on babies in the hospitals. The name of the baby was written on the bracelet but Luke couldn't read more than the name Gilmore and figured that it was a baby picture of Lorelai. He had to smile. Lorelai had been a cute baby. But before he was able to get a closer look at his girlfriend as a baby Lorelai had ripped the picture out of his hand and put it in the back pocket of her jeans with a sad expression on her face.

The moment Lorelai had turned around and had seen Luke with that picture in his hands she had freaked. She knew that you couldn't really see anything special on that picture but she had been scared that he would ask questions she didn't want to answer yet.

Luke looked at her with confusion on his face. Did he do something wrong? Should he have left the boy unopened? Was she mad at him?

He got up and looked into her eyes.

"Lorelai, I'm… I'm sorry. Are you mad at me? I shouldn't have just opened that box, I'm really sorry. You have –", but he was cut off by her lips on his. He wrapped his arms around her and when he felt Lorelai's tongue stroking along his lips he opened his mouth to deepen the kiss. After some time they broke apart and Lorelai grabbed her board.

"It's okay, Luke", she wrote on it and winked at him. He just smiled and nodded.

"Let's go to bed", was the next thing she wrote on it and Luke could only agree again.

Later that night Lorelai was lying awake in Luke's arms. She had problems falling asleep. Every time she closed her eyes she saw that picture. Since she had moved to Stars Hollow she hadn't looked at that picture. Sure, she had thought about it every day but she hadn't looked at it.

---

_There it was again. That tunnel. She could see that person in the distance. That person with that bundle in her arms. That person was walking away from her like it always does and she started to run after the person like she always does. She was screaming to the person to please stop, to not leave her, to not take it away, to just give it back and tears started to pour down her cheeks like it always does. __But suddenly something was different than all the other times. She could feel the presence on someone else. When she turned around she found Luke standing behind her. "Luke", she breathed out. She started to hope again. Luke was there. Luke would be able to help her. But Luke was just standing there and starring at that person in the distance. _

"_Luke, help me, please", she started to yell at him with tears still running down her cheeks like waterfalls. "Help me, Luke", she yelled again but still no reaction. Suddenly Luke started to move. But instead of moving in the direction of the person with the bundle he moved into the complete other direction. And he moved away from her as well. _

_She started to shake. Looking rapidly back and froth between Luke and that person. What should she do? I what direction should she run? Luke couldn't leave her as well. He just couldn't!_

"_Luuuuuuuuuuke", was the only thing she screamed out before she collapsed in the middle of the tunnel. _

---

Luke woke up in the middle of the night. He had no idea why. He had been in such a deep sleep that it was a miracle that he even was awake. It was probably just coincidence that he woke up. But when he was just about to fall back asleep he heard it again. A voice saying his name. A voice he had never heard before. Was he still dreaming?

"Luke, help me, please." There it was again this time it was louder. If this was a dream it was definitely a very weird dream. He tried to wake completely up to see if it was just a dream when he heard the voice again.

"Help me, Luke" It was almost a scream this time. Suddenly he was wide awake. It couldn't be, could it?

Luke slowly turned around and saw Lorelai tossing and turning in the bed and before he could think about it even more she was sitting upright on her side of the bed and Luke heard her scream his name before she collapsed in his arms.

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**muahahahahahahah -evil laugh- evil cliffhanger I know... soo... what do you think? are you gonna klimm me now for ending it there? Please don't cause I wouldn't be able to update the next chapter and if you liked this chapter you'll like the next one even more!!!**

**so, leave me your thoughts again... I can't wait...**

**Jule**


	10. Chapter 9

**Wow guys, thanks for all the reviews... I love you all so much lol**

**This chapter is probably the one you've all been waiting for. It took me some time to finish it because for one it was really hard to make you see and feel how Lorelai feels and secondly it's the longest chapter I've ever written. I really hope you like it because I think it's the most important chapter of the story.**

**get some tissues and enjoy...**

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**Chapter 9**

Luke was in shock. Was this a dream? Did he really just hear Lorelai's voice? His heart was racing. He slowly looked down and immediately knew that it hadn't been a dream.

Lorelai was lying bundled up in his arms, her whole body shaking. She was crying and whimpering like a dog that just got kicked by its owner. Whimpering. He had never heard her whimper before. Every time she had cried she had done it in total silence. Only tears had been running down her cheeks and an occasional sniff could be heard. But this time… this time she was crying like she never had before in his presence. She was whimpering and sobbing, her whole body shaking from the force of her tears. Her hands were clutching the blanked that was wrapped around them.

Luke had totally no idea what to do. He really had heard Lorelai's voice. And not in a normal way. She had been screaming. He had been able to hear all her fear and distress in her voice. He had to know what the hell happened that made her so weak.

Looking down at her he realized that he wouldn't get a word out of her now while she was in this condition. If he would be able to get her to explain everything, now was definitely not the moment. So he just wrapped his arms around her and rocked her back and forth carefully to calm her.

It took him a while to calm her down but she stopped shaking and sobbing eventually. Luke stroked some hair out of her face.

"Lorelai?", he asked in a low voice but she didn't react at all. Luke turned her around so that she was looking at him.

"Lorelai, talk to me", but she just turned back around. Luke was getting frustrated but he knew that he had to control his temper. He was just so worried about her, about what happened that made her so vulnerable. He really wanted to help her but how was he supposed to do that if she wouldn't tell him what happened?

Luke got Lorelai to sit up so he put his hands on her upper arms and tried to look into her eyes but she always looked away again.

"Please, talk to me, Lorelai", he begged her "something terrible must have happened to you", he went on "I wanna help you; I really think I can help you but for me to do so I need you to tell me what happened." For a moment everything was quiet but then Lorelai looked up to him. Her eyes sad and teary.

"I… I can't, Luke", was all she said before she got up and went downstairs. Luke gave her a minute before he went downstairs as well. He saw her sitting on her couch starring at the empty wall between her TV and the stairs. But Lukes first way led him into the kitchen where he turned Lorelai's new shiny coffeemaker on before walking back into the living room. He sat down next to her and Lorelai immediately snuggled up to him, hiding her face in his chest. Luke could, again, do nothing that putting his arms around her in comfort.

"You know you can trust me, right?", he asked, trying again to get her to talk. She only nodded her head. He sighed.

"Then what's keeping you from telling me?" She looked up and into his eyes.

"It hurts, Luke. It is hurting enough right now but everything will come back to me if I tell you. Every memory, every feeling. I don't think I can take it." They didn't break eye contact until Luke moved to kiss her forehead and got up.

"Stay here, I'll be right back", was all he said before he went upstairs. A few minutes later he came downstairs again, went into the kitchen and immediately went upstairs again. Lorelai frowned in confusion. The next time he came back down again he came over to her, pulled her up and led her back upstairs to the bedroom. A dim light was on, a boy of tissues, a thermos of coffee and a chocolate bar were lying on the bedside table and the bed was still unmade. Lorelai was confused. Luke wrapped his arms around her from behind and whispered in her ear:

"I think it's time for you to talk about it. I can't take all the pain from you but I'm gonna try to make it less painful as good as I can."

Lorelai sighed and leaned back into his embrace. He was right. It's been so long since everything has happened. She needed to get this all off her chest and who knows maybe it'll really help her. She took a deep breath.

"Okay",she said and Luke put three butterfly kisses on her neck before he sat down on the bed with his back against the headboard. Lorelai crawled in as well and leaned against his chest. Luke filled a cup of coffee for her and she took a sip.

"Hmmm, did I ever tell you that your coffee is the best?", she asked. Luke just smiled and shook his head. After a few more minutes of silence she started to speak.

"You probably know that I am from Hartford. Well, I was born in one of those rich snob families. My parents sent me to private schools and I always had a nanny. I had to go to cotillions and all that stuff. I really hated that life", she stopped for a second and took another sip of her coffee.

"And when I was 15 I had a boyfriend. Christopher. He and I knew each other since kindergarten. Thinking back to it now I think we only got together to aggravate our parents. One day when we go home from school my parents weren't home and Chris and I had a little fun with my dad's liquor. And… uhm… well, after that Chris and I had… let's say we had a little fun on my balcony." Lorelai felt uncomfortable telling him this but she knew that she had to tell him this. Putting her empty coffee cup aside she turned her head to look for his reaction to this new information. Luke just smiled at her reassuringly and gave her a kiss on the cheek as a sign for her that he was okay and that she should go on. After Lorelai had filled her coffee cup again she continued.

"Around three months later I was about to have another cotillion and when I had to put on my dress for pictures it didn't fit anymore… I was pregnant." This time she stopped because now she was getting to the hard part. She took a deep breath to try and stop her eyes from tearing up. That was when she remembered that this all probably had an effect on Luke, too. Lorelai turned around just to see Luke starring in to space.

"Luke?", she asked gently and he snapped out of his trance.

"You were p…pregnant?", he stuttered in disbelieve "but you don't have a b-…", but Loelai stopped him from saying more.

"Let me continue first, okay?", she asked and he nodded. Lorelai leaned back against his chest and continued her story.

"Well. You can imagine how my parents reacted to it. I mean, how was my mother supposed to explain to her even more snobby friends from the DAR that her teenage daughter was pregnant."

"DAR?", Luke asked, interrupting her again.

"Daughters of the American Revolution… anyways, my and Chris' parents had a meeting about it and their first solution was that we should get married so that it at least wouldn't be a illegitimate kid. Chris was okay with it but I said no. I didn't wanna get married only because I was having a baby and I was way to young to get married. So, they had another idea to 'fix the problem'"

_---Flashback---_

_A young Lorelai came running down the stairs in her parent's house._

"_You can't get me to do this. There is no way that I'm gonna do this!", she yelled. Emily came down the stairs after her in a much more graceful way._

"_I am not discussing that with you, young lady. We are your parents and you have to do what we tell you. You are still a kid. You don't know yet what the best for you is." Lorelai was furious. She couldn't believe what she was hearing._

"_I'm not a kid anymore, mother. The minute the strip turned pink I stopped being a kid and started being a mother." Emily huffed and crossed her arms. _

"_You are hardly a mother, Lorelai. You are not even in your second trimester."_

"_Yeah, but I will be in a week."_

"_No you won't", Emily countered. She felt like she was talking to a kid and not to her teenage daughter._

"_For the last time: I'm not getting rid of this baby!", she said putting her hand securely on her stomach as if she'd protect it like that. _

"_Yes, you will. I made an appointment for you in an hour." Lorelai was shocked._

"_Forget it! I will not get rid of it. This is my life and my baby and I make the decisions for my and its life." With these words she ran out of the house._

_---End Flashback---_

Luke was trying to process it all. Lorelai had been pregnant with sixteen and her own parents wanted her to get rid of it. It was unbelievable. He remembered his sister's early pregnancy. She hadn't been that much older than Lorelai but his dad would've never forced her to get rid of it. The short time he had known Jess he had loved him dearly.

He looked over to Lorelai and saw an angry expression on her face. Starting to rub her arms he tried to get her to calm down a little again.

"So, did you… I mean, you said you wouldn't but…" He stopped looking around uncomfortably. He had no idea what to do. Should he ask questions like these or should he just stay quiet and let her talk? Maybe it was easier for her if he'd just shut up.

"I'm sorry. Go on. I'll be quiet now". He said and leaned back. Lorelai smiled and intertwined her fingers with his that were lying on her stomach.

"No, it's okay Luke. And no, I didn't", she answered his question.

"My parent dragged me to the doctor's office. They even stayed in the waiting room with me so that I wouldn't run away. But they weren't clever enough. When the nurse called my name I followed her but before we went into the next room I asked her if I could use the bathroom first. She said it was okay so I went into the bathroom and climbed out the window." Luke chuckled at that but he was immediately serious again when Lorelai continued talking.

"I hid at my best friend's house for the next week. No one knew that I was there besides her. By the time I went back home I had already reached my second trimester and it was too late for an abortion. My parents were really mad at me and didn't talk to me for over a week but after that they seemed fine. I don't know… I mean they weren't happy about it but they also didn't say anything about "fixing the problem" anymore." And then, a few months later, I started to have contractions while watching TV. My parents weren't home I called a cap and went to the hospital. Some long hours later I gave birth." That's when the tears started to roll freely down her cheeks. Luke just pulled her closer for comfort. She freed one arm from his embrace and reached under her pillow where she had put the picture of the baby earlier when Luke had been in the bathroom to change. Her finger moved to the picture and she slowly started to trace the patterns of the baby.

"My baby girl", she whispered, tears still running down her face.

"You can't imagine how I felt the moment the nurse put her in my arms, Luke. It was amazing. When she opened her eyes for the first time and looked at me… she had me, Luke" she sniffed "I couldn't believe it. That tiny little human being was my child. Even if she was just a few seconds old I could see me in her. She was a part of me. She was perfect." Lorelai couldn't hold it back anymore now. The silent tears that had run down her cheeks just a few minutes before were now like waterfalls and she started to sob again. Luke's heart ached at the sight of her. He held her in his arms, rubbing his hands up and down her back and whispering a soothing "shhh" ever now and then. He wanted to tell her that everything was okay but it obviously wasn't. Kissing the top of her head several times he started to feel helpless. It really hurt him to see her like this. He so badly wanted to take the pain from her but he couldn't and he still didn't know what else happened. So he waited. When her sobs had subsided after some time she looked up at him with her red and puffy eyes and just looked deep into his eyes trying to figure out what he thought. He gave her a warm smile and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. Closing her eyes at his touch she snuggled even more up to him and put her head on his chest. Taking a deep breath of his scent she continued.

"We had to stay the night at the hospital. She was in my room the whole time except for the night. At around 8 that night the nurse came in to take her to the nursery. I gave her a last kiss on the cheek and watched her being wheeled out of my room. If I just would've known that it was the last time I'd see her…"

_---Flashback---_

_Lorelai woke up the next __day around noon slightly confused. It took her a few minutes to remember everything that had happened the day before. She smiled. A nurse came in and Lorelai looked a little disappointed that she came in alone. Without her baby. The nurse ran a few tests on her and told her that she could start packing her things to go home and that the doctor would be there in a few minutes with her discharge papers. Happily Lorelai got dressed and started packing her things together. When the doctor came in she signed the papers and asked him where she could pick up her daughter._

"_I'm sorry, Miss Gilmore, your daughter isn't here anymore. Your mother picked her up earlier", the doctor said and Lorelai frowned._

"_My mother? Why would my mother pick up my baby?" The doctor looked at her confused._

"_She told me that you wanted her to pick her up."_

"_I never told her that. I haven't seen her for two days", and with that she ran out of the room and the hospital. She jumped into the first cap she could get and told the driver her address. _

_When the cap stopped in her driveway she just threw some bills at the driver and ran to the door. She pushed the door open and stepped into the hall._

"_Mom?", she yelled but didn't get any response._

"_Mom, answer me, damn it", she yelled again but everything was silent. Lorelai dropped her back in the middle of the hall and ran up the stairs to her room. When she opened the door and looked around she__'d faint any second. Her room was…her room. There was no sign that there was supposed to be a baby there. The crib and the changing table she had bought were gone. She ran into the room and opened the two drawers of her closet but they were empty. All the onesies and little baby clothes she had bough were gone. Nothing she had bought for the baby was there anymore. No bottles, no diapers, no baby rattle. Nothing. _

_Lorelai was frantic. What happened here? Where did all the stuff go and most important of all where was her daughter? She jumped up and ran out of her room. _

"_W__here the hell are you, mother?", she yelled again running around like crazy. When she reached the stairs she heard the door to the patio close and her mother's voice. _

"_Stop yelling, Lorelai. I told you often enough to not yell in the house. And come down here dinner will be ready soon." Lorelai almost flew down the stairs in anger and stopped in front of Emily._

"_Where is my baby and where did all the baby stuff go?", she screamed at Emily in total rage. Emily just looked at her like a innocent angel._

"_What baby? What baby stuff?", she asked like everything had never happened. Lorelai couldn't believe what she was hearing. Did her mother think she was stupid?_

"_Are you freaking kidding me, mother?"_

"_Watch you language, young lady", Emily scowled._

"_I'm not gonna watch my language until you tell me what you did with my baby!" Lorelai was really furious. She really had to contain herself to not grab Emily and shake her like crazy. Emily's expression got serious and she looked into Lorelai's eyes. _

"_She's gone. If anyone should ever ask you, you never had a baby!" And with that Emily turned around and walked into the dining room. __Lorelai just stood there starring at the space Emily had stood a few seconds before. Her baby was gone. Her beautiful little baby girl. She didn't even have 24 hours with her kid and now it was gone. Lorelai could literally feel her heart break in millions of pieces. She felt her bones getting weak and the next thing she knew she was lying on the living room floor, crying and shaking and the last thing she heard before she fainted was her mother calling: "Lorelai, come in here, dinner is ready"._

_---End Flashback---_

"Later my dad told me that she gave her away to some couple that always wanted to have a kid but couldn't." Lorelai finished her story, crying really hard again. It was like she lived all that again. And Luke… Luke was speechless. Her own mother gave away Lorelai's baby. Her grandchild. Just like that, without Lorelai knowing about it. It was unbelievable. It almost made Luke cry too.

"And you know" Lorelai started again "She didn't want me to talk to anyone about it. She told everyone who knew that I was pregnant that I had a miscarriage. So, every time someone wanted to talk to me about my "miscarriage" I just couldn't say anything because it wasn't true but no one would've believed me if I would've told them that my mother gave my baby away. After some time I just stopped talking at all. I thought if I wouldn't talk to anybody that no one would know what's going on with me and if no one new no one could hurt me again. My parents tried so hard sometimes to get me to talk but I didn't. Especially not to them. And the day I ran away from home and came here my mom told me that she made an appointment with a shrink because it wouldn't be normal not to talk. But in my opinion shrinks are something for crazy people and I'm not crazy, am I?", she asked, looking Luke in the eye. Luke gave her a reassuring kiss and cupped her face with his hands.

"No, you're not crazy, Lorelai. You're absolutely not crazy. You had every right to not talk anymore. Your own parents took your baby from you. I still can't believe that someone can be this cruel. And I swear, your parents can be happy that I not know where they live or they would have a serious problem now. You just have to know that I'm here for you. I'm on your side supporting you in whatever will happen. You're not alone, okay?" Lorelai gave him a teary smile and nodded.

"I know, Luke but it hurts so much. It really hurts that my baby is out there somewhere and I don't even know what she looks like. I'm not there for her first smile, her first laugh, her first word, tooth, step or her first day at kindergarten. I don't see her growing up. She's a part of me and it is like a part of me is missing and doing its own thing without me knowing. It just hurts so much!" Luke wrapped his arms back around her midsection and hugged a crying Lorelai to his body.

"I know it hurts, honey, I know."

* * *

**okay... Please tell me what you think about it. I really hope I could make Lorelai's feelings clear enough. usually my best friend would tell me if it's all crap I've written or if it was any good but she's off to bed already so... **

**God, I really hope you liked it.**

** Jule**


	11. Chapter 10

OMG guys, I'm sooooooo sorry it took me so long. But I had so much stress at school. So many tests and deadlines for things and this and that and I sometimes think teacher don't know that we have more that one class we have to do stuff for.

And then I finally had an idea for this chapter but my ideas for this chapter were blocked by ideas for the sequel and so it took me over 2 weeks to write this chapter but I'm finally done.

This is the last chapter of I'll be at your side. I made it extra long for you guys (my longest chapter ever).

I hope you like it...

* * *

**Chapter 10**

The next morning when Lorelai woke up she found the space next to her empty. She rolled onto her back and took a deep breath. Somehow she felt lighter. It was as if a mighty rock has been removed from her heart. And now the only thing she could do was smile.

Lorelai threw the blankets aside and got up. While she put her hair into a ponytail she left her bedroom and started her way down the stairs. She stopped at the entrance to the kitchen and leaned against the wall.

Luke was in the kitchen making breakfast. He didn't notice Lorelai watching him from the doorway. But Lorelai just couldn't help herself. Luke was her hero… kind of. He had been the first person she had started to really trust again. He had been the first person she had talked to again. He had been the person who took a lot of her pain away. And she had the feeling that he's the first person she'd really love. But before she could continue with that thought she was interrupted by Luke's voice.

"Oh, hey, good morning", he said a little insecure. He just didn't know what was going to happen now. Would she continue talking or close up again. Would they be able to talk about her past more freely now or not? There was so much he was unsure about.

"Morning", she answered coming into the kitchen. Luke let go of a breath he didn't know he was holding. She was still talking.

"I made you breakfast", he said pointing at the scrambled eggs that were still in the pan and the pancakes piled up on a plate.

"I can see that", she said coming up behind him and snuggling up against his back. Luke smiled and intertwined his fingers with hers for a moment.

"And coffee is ready as well." At that Lorelai perked up.

"oh, goodie." Lorelai walked over to the coffee maker and filled a cup with her black love. Luke just shook his head.

"You know, that stuff can kill you", he said but Lorelai just smiled at him.

"It's totally worth it", she just answered him and sat down at the kitchen table. Luke started to set the table for breakfast and then sat down as well. They both sat in a comfortable silence for a while enjoying their breakfast until Luke broke it again.

"So, you going to work today?", he asked looking up at Lorelai. She chewed the last bite of her pancakes and drowned it with a sip of her coffee.

"Yeah, I mean, nothing has changed, so why wouldn't I go?" Luke looked at her with raised eyebrows.

"A lot has changed and you know it." Lorelai looked up to him and smiled. She took his hand that was lying on the table and started to draw soft circles on his palm with her fingers.

"You're right, Luke, a lot has changed for me. Maybe even for you. But it doesn't change anything at the inn. It only makes it easier." Luke nodded his head and lifted their intertwined hands to his lips, kissing the back of her hand.

"I'd like to take you out on Saturday, you free?" He asked, smiling at her. Lorelai just smiled back and nodded her head.

The next hour was spent with cleaning the dishes, taking a shower and changing into work clothes. Lorelai decided against Luke's offer to drive her to the inn and told him that she wanted to walk. They kissed goodbye and Luke drove his truck back to the Diner.

Lorelai stood on her porch taking a deep breath. So much had changed in such a short amount of time. She had come here with nothing and now around five months later she had a job, a house, a lot of new friends and a wonderful boyfriend who helped her to start talking again. Who helped her to trust again.

She sighed a happy sigh and started her walk into town. It was a beautiful day in May. The sun was shining and it was slowly starting to get warmer again. You could see people all around town who were doing their usual morning things. Parents bringing their kids to school or kindergarten. People on their way to work or to Luke's or Weston's for breakfast. While Lorelai looked around she clearly remembered the day she got here. When she had seen this town she had thought that it looked like one of those picture-perfect towns and now she knew that it didn't just look like it.

Ms. Patty was staying on the top step of her dance studio smoking her usual morning cigarette and watching the townies when Lorelai walked by.

"Good morning, Lorelai", she greeted her as usual and expecting her usual hand wave and smile as answer but she didn't expect Lorelai to answer with a "morning Patty". Patty dropped her cigarette in shock and starred after Lorelai. Did she really just hear what she thought she had heard? It couldn't be possible, could it?

When Patty came back to her senses Lorelai was already out of sight. With her mouth agape she reached into one of her big pockets, took her cell phone out of it and frantically started to type in a number. After a few rings someone picked up.

"Babette, you will never believe what just happened!"

While Patty was still in shock Lorelai reached the inn and entered it through the kitchen door. Sookie was leaning against the middle counter with a bowl in her hand and stirring its content permanently while counting her stirs. Lorelai thought she would just say something and see how Sookie would react.

"Morning Sookie", she tried it the easiest way but didn't get more than a grunt as response. She frowned and tried it again.

"I said, good morning Sookie."

"yeah, yeah, I heard ya" she answered trying to concentrate on her counting again by counting out loud. Lorelai got frustrated.

"Could you please focus for a second, Sookie?", she asked.

"I am focusing. I'm focusing on how much I have stirred this yet." Lorelai growled, took the spoon and the bowl out of Sookie's hand and started to stir it for her counting the stirs out loud from where Sookie had stopped. At first Sookie was totally perplexed that someone just took her bowl out of her hand but then she looked up and saw Lorelai stirring and counting out _loud_.

"Oh my god", Sookie whispered, covering her mouth with her hands. She looked at Lorelai a little closer as if she'd see her for the first time.

"Oh my god, oh my god", she screeched this time and threw herself at Lorelai. Lorelai let the bowl fall to the ground in the progress and started to laugh when her friend gave her a bone crashing hug.

"Sookie, you're crushing me", Lorelai said still laughing. Sookie let Lorelai go and looked at her in awe.

"Oh my god, you're talking. What… I mean, how did that happen?" Lorelai smiled at her.

"I'm not ready yet to tell you what caused it. Just be happy that it happened, okay?" Sookie just nodded and hugged her again.

Ten minutes, five 'oh my god's and two more hugs later Lorelai had been able to leave the kitchen. She was now standing in front of Mia's office. This one wouldn't be as easy. She had so much to say to Mia. So much to thank her for. Lorelai took a deep breath and knocked. When she heard Mia call her in she opened the door and stepped in.

"Good morning, Lorelai." Mia said in her usual friendly voice. Lorelai just smiled at her. Why not leave her hanging a little.

"Do you have a reason why you came here?" Mia asked her and Lorelai nodded. Mia pointed at the chair on the other side of her desk for Lorelai to sit in. She sat down opposite of Mia and for a moment there was silence while both women watched each other. They both had their forearms on the desk and were leaning on them. Lorelai took another deep breath and then slowly started.

"Mia, there is a lot I have to say to you. At first I want to thank you for everything you did for me in the last five months. You met this strange girl who didn't talk who you didn't know at all but you still took her in and gave her a job. Gave her a home. Not everyone would do that. To be honest, there is probably hardly anyone who'd do that. But still, you did it. You took me in and gave me a new home. You made it possible for me to start a new life. I met a lot of wonderful people through you. People that are now my friends. And as if that wouldn't be enough already you also gave me your house for almost nothing. Mia, I just don't know how to thank you enough." During her little speech Lorelai had held eye contact with Mia and both women had now tears in their eyes. After a minute of silence Mia got up, walked around the desk and came to a halt in front of Lorelai's chair. Lorelai looked up to her and then stood up as well. Mia gave her a teary smile and just took Lorelai into her arms. Both women just stood there hugging each other for a while until Mia broke the embrace.

"You don't need to thank me. Just do me a favor and never close up like that again, okay?" Lorelai gave her a teary smile and nodded.

Lorelai's day went on smoothly. When Michel had found out that she was talking she had whished to have a camera. His face had been priceless when she had greeted him with a "Morning, French guy." It was so much fun to tease him. Even more now.

Around lunch Lorelai was done with her shift and thought she'd go and visit her boyfriend. Maybe she'd be able to get an extra large piece of pie today. As she strolled through town she was lost in thought again. She still couldn't believe that she was talking again. She had always thought that she'd never talk again because she was sure that she'd never be able to trust someone again. But she trusted Luke. Completely.

While Lorelai was on her way to the diner Luke thought he was going crazy. The whole town was in the Diner gathered around four or five tables they had pushed into one corner. They'd been there all morning, whispering and shooting him weird looks every now and then. If they'd at least order something but no, they only ordered a cup of coffee or tea every now and then.

He was starting to wipe the counter a little aggressively trying to block out the lunatic townsfolk when the bell over the door started to ring and the whole diner went quiet. Luke looked up and saw that Lorelai had just entered and everyone in the diner was starring at them. Luke looked from Lorelai over to the townspeople and back to Lorelai who was smiling at him. Lorelai walked over to the counter, all eyes following her.

"Hey babe", she said before she leaned over the counter and gave him a short kiss.

"How was your day so far?", she asked and suddenly the whole diner was buzzing again. Luke and Lorelai turned to the big table in the corner seeing that everyone was again whispering like crazy. Luke raised and eyebrow and Lorelai just shrugged. She sat down on a stool at the counter and Luke automatically filled a cup of coffee. Placing it on the counter in front of her and leaned closer to her.

"I swear, they're driving me crazy", he whispered as well "they have been here all morning doing nothing than whispering to each other. They don't even order anything. This is my business for god's sake. Do they think it's good for my business when they take over almost all of my tables and don't order anything?" Lorelai put her elbows on the counter, rested her chin in her hands and smiled at Luke. He looked over at her and frowned.

"What?", he asked confused.

"Nothing, just go on." Luke straightened up and put his hand on his hips.

"Tell me why you're looking at me like this." He demanded.

"Luke, calm down. I just like hearing you rant like that." Luke relaxed again and leaned against the counter.

"Sorry", he said, taking Lorelai's hand "they're just making me nervous. I have no idea what they're talking about." Lorelai smiled and gently stroke his hand.

"Don't worry babe. Look at them… in the middle of all of them are Patty and Babette. You know them. They're best at gossiping. And I bet you that they're making up stories about how and why I started speaking again. But if this still makes you nervous I suggest you start thinking about that date Saturday night that you promised me."

And Saturday night came pretty fast. Luke hadn't told her where he was taking her just that she should dress up. She had been nagging him about it all week but he didn't say a word. But Lorelai was extremely fidgety today. She didn't know why. It wasn't as if it was their first date but somehow she had the feeling that this date was gonna be something special.

Lorelai looked at herself in the mirror. She was wearing one of the rare fancy dresses she had because she didn't have enough money to buy more. It was a black low cut v-neck dress that reached her knees and was flowing nicely around her legs. Her hair was down and curly. She was just fastening a necklace around her neck when the doorbell rang. Taking one last look at the mirror she started her way down the stairs and to the front door. When she opened the door her breath caught in her throat. Luke looked absolutely stunning. He was wearing a dark blue suit with a white dress shirt under it. The first three buttons of the shirt were open and she could see his chest. His face was freshly shaved and his head was cap-less. Lorelai was totally mesmerized and only when she had felt Luke putting an arm around her waist did she come back to reality.

She pressed herself against him and put one had on his chest, playing with the soft hair sticking out of the open collar.

"Wow, you look so handsome", she said looking up into his eyes.

"And you look absolutely beautiful", Luke said, pulling her closer.

"Thanks, but I know", she joked and Luke just laughed and kissed her hello.

"Hi", he whispered when they broke apart but Lorelai just kissed him again. After a few more kisses Luke pushed her away a little and Lorelai pouted.

"Let's get going, okay?", he asked and Lorelai nodded. They drove in a comfortable silence. While Lorelai was trying to figure out where they were going Luke just enjoyed her company. After about twenty minutes Luke stopped the truck in front of an old but beautiful building. It looked a little like an old country building and there was a big sign over the door that said "Sniffy's". Luke walked around the truck and opened the door for Lorelai. Hand in hand they walked over to the building. Opening the door, Luke led her in with his hand on the small of her back. Without waiting for someone to seat them he gently guides her toward a round-tabled booth.

"Your table, miss", he said.

"Oh. Why, thank you, sir", Lorelai said and he removed his jacket and put it aside as they both slid into the booth and sat. Lorelai noticed a small sign on the table.

"Reserved", She said impressed.

"I told you I'd planned the evening."

"Weren't we supposed to let someone who works here seat us?"

"Not necessary."

"Is this like a Mafia thing?"

"Excuse me?"

"The whole coming in, special table, reserved sign. Are you gonna have to whack someone before the soup course?"

"No, I've filled my whacking quota for the week." Luke cringed when he realized what he said.

"Dirty?" he asked and Lorelai shot him a wicked grin.

"Extremely!"

"Thought so."

"Lukas!" They suddenly heard someone shout and an older woman walked up to their table with menus in her hand.

"How you doing, Maisy?", Luke asked, looking at the woman.

"You just seat yourself now?", Maisy asked him.

"I told him!", Lorelai threw in. Luke stood up and gave Maisy a warm hug.

"We run a nice place here, Lucas, not like that hash joint of yours. And this must be your young lady. Hello, there. I'm Maisy.", Maisy said, turning from Luke to Lorelai and both women shook hands.

"Hi. I'm Lorelai. I love your place."

"It used to be a whorehouse."

"Oh - my."

"I like that it's got a tardy history. The best places do."

"And the best people."

"'The best people'. I like that.", Maisy said and turned around.

"Buddy!", she called out loud and then shooed Luke.

"Will you sit down?"

"Well, you pulled me up", Luke said and sat down again. An older man walks up to their table.

"Buddy, this is Lorelai", Maisy introduced and Buddy looked over to her.

"Lorelai. Well, hello, Lorelai." Lorelai shook Buddy's hand and answered with a nice

"Hello, Buddy."

"This is very exciting for us because Lucas never brings his girls here", Maisy said and Luke tried to hide his embarrassment.

"Lori, some sparkling water and champagne" She yelled to one of her waitresses.

"And a beer", Luke ordered.

"You're on a date, you drink champagne. You're at a ball game, you drink a beer."

"My goodness, what a big menu", Lorelai interrupted them.

"Don't bother looking. Whatever you order, they'll just bring you something different", Luke told her. He had experienced it a lot of times.

"Hey, what about the, uh –", Maisy gestured with her hands in Buddy's direction with thoughts about what to bring Luke and Lorelai for dinner.

"Oh, yeah, good. With garlic and –". Buddy immediately knew what Maisy meant but she interrupted him.

"No, no, no garlic. I mean, give the boy a chance", she said and Buddy went back into the kitchen a little disappointed.

"Lorelai, nice to meet you, and, uh, he's a special one, this guy", Maisy said, gesturing to Luke with her head.

"That's the word on the street", Lorelai answered and Maisy followed her husband.

"They know you." Lorelai said to Luke, trying to suppress a chuckle.

"Actually, I come here two, three times a week. Yeah -- breakfast, dinner, whenever I have the time and am not eating with you."

"Oh, my God, Luke has a 'Luke's'."

"Yeah, well, y'know. I've known Maisy and Bud my whole life. Maisy went to school with my mother."

"Really?", Lorelai asked interested in Luke's past.

"Yeah. And then four years ago when my dad died and I wanted to turn the hardware store into a diner, you know, Buddy really helped me out."

"That's so nice."

"He's a good guy. He really showed me how to run a restaurant, how to order -- everything, basically. I mean, I couldn't have done it without him." Lorelai just smiled at him and looked around.

"I love this place"

"It's a great place -- very old."

"How long have they owned it?"

"Actually, the story of that is on the back of the menu."

"Oh, cool", Lorelai said, flipped open the menu and cleared her throat. "Oh, look -- "Sniffy's Tavern: A story of love", she started to read. "Oh, a story of love. "Maisy Fortnerand Bertram 'Buddy' Linds met at a high-school basketball game. She was playing, he was not. They fell in love, got married. Buddy went to work at a dairy, and Maisy worked at the school, but they dreamed to someday own a restaurant so that all of their friends and family could come and eat and visit and laugh with them every single day." Lorelai read the first part.

"Buddy hated working at that dairy", Luke commented.

Lorelai continued to read: "One day Sniffy, their beloved dog, ran away. Maisy and Buddy searched high and low for him. Finally they stumbled past a dilapidated old tavern that had been boarded up for years. They heard a dog howling. They forced open the door, and there was Sniffy, stuck underneath a fallen beam. Maisy and Buddy pulled Sniffy free and rushed him to the vet, where he immediately went into emergency surgery." Oh my God, did Paul Thomas Anderson write this? Edit, people", Lorelai commented the part she had just read.

"You don't have to read the whole thing. There's not gonna be a quiz", Luke said but didn't mind reading her at all. It was just so nice to hear her voice. He was still not really used to it yet so he enjoyed every second of it.

"I'm almost done", Lorelai said and continued reading: Four hours later... Sniffy was dead." Sniffy was dead?! Are you serious? Where's the happy ending?", Lorelai exclaimed and put the menu down. Luke just shrugged.

"Well, that's what happened."

"Well, people don't read the back of the menu to find out what really happened. They read the back of the menu to be happy, to be uplifted. That's why they read the back of the menu."

"Not that many people read the back of the menu." A waitress came to their table and poured champagne into two glasses for them.

"Did you know about the whole Sniffy thing?" Lorelai asked the waitress and she just nodded.

"If it makes you feel better, Sniffy was 150,000 years old." Luke said and Lorelai feigned a pout.

"You're lying!" Luke just grinned and handed Lorelai a glass of champagne.

"Thank you", Lorelai said, taking the glass from him.

"Hey, here's to you", Luke said, raising his glass and Lorelai smiled.

"I'll drink to that." They both took a sip.

"Yep, I definitely hate champagne." Luke said, making a disgusted face and putting the glass down. Lorelai put her glass down as well and looked at Luke.

"This is nice", She said, looking into his eyes.

"Good." They both starred into each others eyes for a few seconds.

"Hey, do you remember the first time we met?" Lorelai asked him suddenly.

"What?"

"I'm just trying to remember the first time we met. I mean, it hasn't been that long." Luke nodded to tell her that he remembered.

"It was at Luke's, it was at lunch, it was a very busy day, the place was packed, and this person –" Lorelai gasped.

"Ooh, is it me? Is it me?"

"This person comes tearing into the place with Mia on her heels."

"Ooh, it's me."

"And without looking where she was going she bumped into me. I tried to keep my balance but it was too late. We both fell on the ground and she landed on top of me. I got up and started complaining about her not paying attention."

"Y'know, I bet she took that very well, 'cause she sounds just delightful."

"When I looked at the person I immediately stopped complaining. I had never seen this young woman before but she fascinated me. Her shiny hair, falling over her shoulders in brown curls, and her beautiful face made her look like a princess. Her eyes were the most enchanting thing. I was sure that I had never seen such blue and oratorical eyes before."

"Oh, wow", Lorelai whispered, blushing a little bit.

"I'm not done with my story yet." Lorelai frowned. That was exactly how they met. What else had happened that he would tell her? She heard Luke talking again and concentrated on him.

"The only thing abnormal about her was that she didn't say a word. But I didn't care. I liked her and so I became friends with her. One day she came into my diner, crying, her eyes all red and puffy. I took her up to my apartment and just comforted her and when we went back down she wrote "Thanks" on a piece of paper." Luke grabbed his wallet out of his back pocket and took a small piece of paper out of it which he handed to Lorelai.

"I put it in my pocket and later on into my wallet because it was a big step for her and I was the first one she ever wrote something to." Lorelai starred at the piece of paper in her hand. She couldn't believe he had kept it. She looked up into his eyes and he saw happy tears glistening in them.

"You kept this in your wallet?", she asked him for confirmation.

"The whole time", he answered, taking he hands in his. Both their hands were playing with the small piece of paper until Lorelai looked up again.

"Luke?", she asked, almost whispering.

"Yeah?", he said looking back up into her eyes. Lorelai took a deep breath.

"I love you!" It was out. She had said it. For the first time in her life she had told someone 'I love you' and for the first time in her life she really felt that way. A smile started to spread on Luke's face and he cupped her face in his hands without breaking the eye contact.

"I love you, too, Lorelai", he said and now Lorelai started to smile too. They both leaned closer until their lips met in a gentle kiss. It was a slow and tender kiss until Luke started to run his tongue over Lorelai's bottom lip and she just couldn't stop herself from inviting him in. Their tongues were dancing around each other, sending Goosebumps through Lorelai's body every time they touched. Neither of them heard the waitress approach until she cleared her throat. Luke and Lorelai both blushed and looked away.

---

Later that night they were walking hand in hand through town. Luke had parked his truck at the diner and they were walking their way back to Lorelai's house.

"Oh come on, it was fun", Lorelai exclaimed.

"No, it was embarrassing!"

"No, I think she did that on purpose", Lorelai said laughing.

"What? You think the waitress waited for us to make out every time just so she can interrupt us?"

"Yep! Why else would she have run into us making out five out of six times?"

"Coincidence", Luke said and Lorelai laughed.

"Of course, babe, let your innocent mind believe that", Lorelai said, still laughing and patting his arm with her free hand. They walked the rest of the way in silence. When they reached Lorelai's house they immediately made their way up the stairs and prepared for bed.

Lorelai was lying in bed, flipping through a magazine, waiting for Luke to come out of the bathroom and join her in bed. A few minutes later she heard the water of the sink stop and he made his way over to the bed.

"Hey Luke?", Lorelai asked the second time this night.

"Yeah?", he answered again while putting his wallet on the bedside table and taking his watch off.

"Thank you for dinner. Tonight was wonderful."

"You're welcome", Luke said and climbed into bed with her. He leaned over and gave her a short goodnight kiss but when they broke apart there was something that wouldn't let them go quiet yet. So Lorelai just kissed him again, deeper this time. What better thing is there than a little making out before bedtime?

After some time Lorelai's mouth wandered from Luke's lips to his earlobe. His breath caught in his throat when Lorelai slowly sucked it into her mouth and gently bit on it. Lorelai kissed her way over his jaw and down to his neck. Luke's hands found their way under her shirt and when Lorelai felt Luke's hands on her bare back she knew that this wasn't enough anymore. She wanted more. Her hands found the way under his shirt and slowly started to pull it up and over his head. Luke couldn't move for a few seconds. Was she doing what he thought she was doing? When she started to kiss her way over his chest down to his belly button he knew he had thought right. He pulled her up again and looked into her eyes.

"Are you sure you wanna do this?", he asked her. Lorelai smiled at him and kissed him again.

"I'm sure", she said but before she could continue bathing him in kisses he had pulled her up again.

"Really? You know you don't have to. We can still wait –" but Lorelai had silenced him with a finger on his lips.

"Just shut up, okay?" And that was what he did. He put his arms around her and flipped them over, so that he was on top and now it was his turn to kiss her senseless. While his lips worked their way down her throat to her chest his hands where going the other direction. He slowly moved them up her stomach until he touched the underside of her breasts, pushing her shirt up in the progress. Lorelai moaned when she felt his hands brushing against her breasts and automatically lifted her arms up for him to remove her shirt. When he had removed it he started to trail kisses over her chest, the valley between her breasts and over her stomach to her belly button. Lorelai sank her hands into his hair. Every kiss and every touch felt like little fires on her skin and she couldn't stop herself from moaning his name.

These feelings were new. Whenever Christopher had touched her it hadn't felt like this. It had almost felt like nothing. But this was amazing. Luke's hands on her body made her feel like flying on a cloud. She could really feel the million butterflies in her stomach. And he hadn't even touched the more important parts yet. Lorelai was totally relaxed and enjoyed each and every touch.

---

Afterwards they were lying cuddled up together in bed. Luke had already fallen asleep but Lorelai's thoughts kept her awake. She was thinking about herself. About her time before her pregnancy, the time after the pregnancy and the time now. Lorelai had been a troubled kid. She was the cool kid at school, had the cool boyfriend and did exactly the opposite of what her parents expected from her. Back then she thought that was who she really was supposed to be. She wasn't meant to be one of those rich, snobby kids. Lorelai still thought that she wasn't meant to be like hr parents but she wasn't supposed to be such a trouble maker either. When she thought about the time after the pregnancy it was clear to her that it totally wasn't herself but it was still the right thing to do because not talking hand kept her away from getting hurt. But when she thought about now she knew she had found her real self. Alive, happy, crazy, confident, outgoing, caring and coffee addicted.

And all this because she finally felt loved.

**THE END**

* * *

**soooo... that's it... I'm not really satisfied with this chapter but okay... **

**Buuuuut there will be a sequel to this story... so if you are interested in how LL's life will be in 8 years from this point you should read the sequel that will be out soon.**

**Thank you for all your support and your reviews during this story. I hope I'll see you reading the sequel ;)**

**love you guys, **

**Jule  
**


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